The Predator's Prerogative
by princesspomegranate
Summary: Romy wasn't supposed to be on that hunting trip. She wasn't supposed to be with the men when they were taken. But she was. And that simple fact changed the whole nature of the hunt. Eventual PredatorxOC.
1. The Hunt Begins

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OCs.**

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><p>She sat cross-legged in her open bay window, her back leaning against the cream-painted wall behind her. Andromeda let out a deep breath, blowing a stray strand of black hair from in front of her eyes. She rested her head back against the wall and gazed outside longingly.<p>

The knee-length shorts and thin spaghetti-strap top she wore did nothing to insulate the heat, but, even so, the heat inside her house was overwhelming. Even with the window wide open, she couldn't push back the suffocating feeling that the air in her house was pushing on her.

She just felt so... _enclosed_ as she sat, trapped in her own home. Especially as she watched her dad and the group of the other so-called '_men'_ that lived in the village packing up their cars for their latest hunting trip. She wished so much that she could go with them, but she remembered all too well how _that_ conversation had gone.

_"This time it's guys only, Romy, hun,"_ her dad had said.

_Guys only_, she scoffed. He made it sound as if, just because she was a woman- no, a _girl_, as _he_ still thought of her- she was somehow inferior to the "_guys_" who were, for some reason, _allowed_ to go out hunting. _For fuck's sake, _she thought. She was nineteen years old and a damn-sight better shot then most of the men heading out that morning.

And it pissed her off. Because she knew it; and she knew that her dad knew it too. But still, she was stuck in her empty, stuffy house, watching as they flaunted their trip in front of her. She soon caught sight of Seth Cooper and was quick to meet his eye.

He was her next-door neighbour, the same age, and a damn pain in the arse. So it didn't surprise Romy when he shot her a very self-satisfied smirk and waved goodbye to her. All she did in return was to raise her hand and flip him off, turning away from the window. Gods, she hated that prick. And the fact that he was going out on this hunt bothered her to no end.

Scowling and pulling the window shut, Romy slipped her legs off the bay window and placed her bare feet on the hard-wood flooring. _Fuck this, _she thought. She'd be damned if she was just going to sit around the house while they all went out and had fun.

Running upstairs, Romy found her things in her bedroom quickly. She always kept a light bag prepared for anytime she felt like getting out of the house for a few days. It would be perfect for this occasion. As would her FWB 127 that stood proudly on her dresser table. Quickly pulling on her trainers and tying them tightly, Romy left the house through the back door.

Her dad had already said his goodbyes earlier, so she knew that he wouldn't notice that she wasn't in the house anymore. But he _might_ notice her trying to sneak her way into the trunk of his car if she wasn't careful. So _careful_ was exactly what she was as she crept around her house and around to the front garden.

The trunk of her dad's car looked to have only just been closed. And, with that Romy headed, full speed, for it, and popped the lid quickly. Thankfully, though the trunk was nearly full, she saw just enough room to slip herself inside it and pull the lid down over her.

It was a little awkward, crammed in the trunk with all her dad's things, lying sideways with her gun placed carefully above her. The dark didn't bother her, and she'd never been particularly affected with motion sickness, so the secret ride she was taking was nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

With nothing to do, Romy would admit that things soon just got tedious though. She almost fell asleep with the dark and the steady hum of the car's engine as they travelled along their way. Romy didn't sleep though; there was no point. She knew that they could arrive at the edge of the forest that they always hunted in at any point.

And she had to be on target for the argument she was bound to have with her dad as soon as he discovered that she'd tagged along like this. And when light flooded into her quiet little compartment, she knew that she had been right about an impending argument. Romy squinted to see the figure breaking the shine of the bright light outside the trunk.

"Romy?" her dad said confusedly.

"Afternoon, dad," she replied, slapping his arm as she pulled a long leg out of the car and clambered out.

She was met with bemused stares from all the men as they noticed her presence.

"Oh, what the fuck? What's _she_ doing here?" Romy heard Seth yell as he got out of his uncle's car.

"Shut the fuck up, arsehole," she replied, giving him a harsh glare.

"Seriously, hun, what are you doing here?" had dad asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Romy shrugged his hand away and frowned. Her dad recognised the way she folded her arms as her initial standpoint for this argument; he recognised it because that's exactly what her mother used to do in the same situation.

"I told you that this was meant to be-"

"Yeah, _guys only_, I know. And that's bullshit, dad."

He gave her a levelling look of disapproval that she ignored completely.

"Why the hell is today any different to any other hunting trip we've taken?"

"Because it's a bunch of guys doing what guys are best at," Seth smirked, having made his way over to where she stood.

"And what's that supposed to be?"

"Hunting, dumbass," he answered snidely.

Romy scoffed at him and rolled her eyes, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Did you just say that _you_ were the best at hunting? Fuck, you couldn't even hit brick wall if you stood right in front of it."

Romy's dad, George, ran his hand through his short tufts of dark hair and turned from the two teenagers to go and speak with the others. He had to explain the situation to them and the fact that he was sure that there was no way he could get Romy to go home now unless he drove her there himself and handcuffed her to their house.

But that meant that he'd left Romy and Seth to square up to each other, their argument bound to continue. Standing at a respectable five foot ten inches, her height almost matched his. So when she stared at him with those deep and penetrating blue eyes, he got the full effect of her angry glare.

"I can shoot better than you can," he grunted.

That time she didn't bother holding back the laugh that burst its way out. She was sure that she couldn't have held it back if she'd tried.

"On what planet?" Romy exclaimed, smirking back at him.

Seth never got to offer any angry retort to that question though. Because as he opened his mouth to speak, a bright light flashed from above them and they knew no more.

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><p>The sound of her dad's voice brought her out of the sleep she found herself in. She was lying on something that seemed to be soft but hard enough to not really be comfortable. Lifting her head, Romy opened her eyes. The left side of her face was criss-crossed with the imprint of the long grass she'd been lying on, but she didn't notice.<p>

Because Romy was too busy focussing on the fact that it was taking all too long for her eyes to focus on the face of her dad. _What... the fuck?_ she thought groggily. Everything felt incredibly strange, as if it were happening in slow motion. Even her dad's voice as he called her name to wake her up.

As her eyes started to come into focus, and the men around her stopped fuzzing into blurry detail, Romy put her head in her hands. She tried to figure out what was going on as she looked at the ground beneath her. When she felt slightly better, Romy looked up and took in the situation around her.

All of them were there, but where _there_ was, she couldn't say. They were in some sort of... jungle. _Don't be stupid_, she told herself. _That makes no sense. There are no _jungles_ in the UK._ She frowned as she tried to understand what had happened; why her head felt so funny. Why she'd been unconscious.

"What the fuck, guys? Did one of you _drug_ me?"

"Don't be thick, Romy. I'd never let them do that," he dad said from her side.

"Right," she muttered quietly under her breath.

Romy frowned as she stared around at the men with her. There were ten of them, eleven if she counted herself. And she'd only trust a certain number of them in this odd circumstance. She found the faces one by one; first was her dad, and, of course, she trusted him; knowing that she would be safe with him whatever the matter.

He was talking to the grey-eyed Leo, another man that Romy knew well enough to trust. Leo was the village's doctor and had been a family friend since her parents had moved to the village. Plus, he'd already virtually saved Romy's life once before when she'd tripped and cut herself badly with a kitchen knife. She would have bled out if he hadn't stitched her back together.

Romy's eyes trailed over to the next group of men, and she quickly identified the two men who worked for the local builders company. Jake was only a few years older than her. She trusted him. She'd grown up with him as the sort of older brother figure in her life. Jake had always looked out for her after her mother had deserted Romy and her dad. He was almost like family- more so than the woman who had abandoned her all those years ago.

Next to Jake was Terry, his boss. Romy didn't really know him; she'd passed him when visiting Jake and he'd always smiled at her, but she didn't _know _him. She'd never seen Terry do anything that meant she shouldn't trust him though, so her eyes turned to the other men left.

Rick, the butcher. Andrew, the man from across the street. Ryan, the manager at the local supermarket. Dave, the horticultural enthusiast. Eddie, the owner of the local pub that Romy wasn't ashamed to say that she frequented relatively often.

And then there was Seth, Romy's prick of a next-door neighbour. The two had never gotten along, and Romy knew exactly why that was. And that was simply because of the fact that he was an _utter_ arsehole. Romy stared at him and sighed. _Isn't it enough to wake up in this weird place without _him _having to be here too_? she thought, annoyed, and turned back to her dad.

"So what-?" she started.

"I'll be fucked if I know!" Andrew yelled.

"We don't know," George replied, his brows scrunching until they met in the middle.

"Anyone tried phoning for help?" she asked.

"No service," Rick scowled back.

"I don't think this is the forest we parked outside," commented Leo.

"No shit, Sherlock," Dave interrupted from where he was crouched beside a plant that Romy had never seen before.

"These plants, I've not seen any of them before... We're definitely not in the UK. These plants just wouldn't survive there. The climate here's too hot, too humid to be anywhere _near_ the UK."

Romy frowned; as did the others. Dave was the village's resident horticultural enthusiast, or 'plant nut' as Romy had named him; and if he said that this place wasn't in the UK, then Romy would be damned if she'd disagree with him. She could tell from the worried glances that the men around her were throwing each other that they felt the same.

"So where the fuck are we?" Rick asked, throwing his hands in the air.

"No idea," Dave said.

"Nowhere that I recognise."

"Me either," Terry said, his deep voice rough.

That was another thing that they had to worry about. Terry was pretty well-travelled; often leaving town to go on month-long trips to go hiking.

"Let me get this straight, we're in some weird, unidentifiable forest-type place with no idea how we got here?" Ryan asked.

"I'd say it's more of a jungle than a forest," Dave put in.

"Like that makes a difference," Seth sneered at the older man.

"Either way we've been fucked over somehow," Romy said, frowning at Seth.

Seth shot her a glare that she rolled her eyes at.

"Okay, so what's the last thing you all remember?" Jake asked, speaking for the first time.

"The last thing I remember is that those two were arguing," he continued, nodding his head at both Romy and then Seth.

"Yeah, and then there was a light and then-" Andrew started.

"-Nothing," George finished, putting a hand on Romy's shoulder.

"Same here," Eddie said, rubbing his hand over his bald head.

"Well this is fucking _marvellous_," Romy muttered, too low for the others to hear.

"Right... First things first then; I've got my gun still, how about the rest of you?" Leo said, the voice of common sense among them.

The chorus of voices that came in response all confirmed that yes, all of them had still got their guns. But that just confused them.

"That's weird," Andrew said, and the others turned to him.

"You'd think if we'd be kidnapped or whatever that they would have taken our weapons."

"That's true," George frowned.

"Unless... Unless maybe they wanted us to have our weapons," Jake said.

"And why would they want that?" Seth asked unhelpfully.

"I don't know. What's in this place? Animals-wise, I mean?"

Many shoulders shrugging was the only response the others could give. As none of them knew where they were, none of them could say for certain what beasts could be out there. For all they knew, they could be in some far corner of Asia and a tiger might pounce at them at any moment.

"Whatever's out there, we've got our guns so we should be okay," Leo reasoned.

"All that we have to do now is find a way out of this place so we can figure out where we are-" George started seriously.

"-And what fucker brought us here," Eddie put in, hefting his gun up as he stood up.

"So we go then?" Romy asked.

Her dad simply nodded in response.

"Which way?"

They were surrounded by tall trees and draping vines. The ground was relatively flat apart from the fallen logs and slopes of greenery, so there was no easy way to determine which way was to higher ground. That was why it really didn't seem to matter which way they went and when they headed off to their right, no one questioned it.

Some of the older men, Romy's dad included, headed up the group. Romy found herself at the back of the group, unfortunately for her, right beside Seth. For her part, Romy just tried to take no notice of every remark that he made- and he made a _lot_ of remarks.

Romy tried to ignore him, treating him as if he was some sort of fly buzzing around her. She just had to spend her energy resisting the urge to swat him away. Her silence seemed to do nothing to deter Seth though, who, Romy thought, seemed to be alive only to annoy the crap out of her.

"Still pissy about almost getting left behind, Rom?"

"Shut up, wanker," she said, finally having had enough of hearing his voice.

"Oh, I'm hurt by your cutting response," Seth said sarcastically.

"Obviously, I didn't get left behind, because I'm here, aren't I, stupid?"

What almost seemed to be anger flashed in his eyes.

He recovered well though and sneered as he said, "Well we didn't _want_ you here."

"Seriously? That's the best you can come up with? Besides, don't you think I've got more important issues to deal with right now than your stupid little attitude?" Romy answered, turning on Seth.

"Romy. Seth. Enough," Jake said turning around to come between the two of them and motioning Seth forward.

Reluctantly, Seth walked away, tutting as he did. And Romy gave Jake a look of feigned innocence as he stood beside her.

With a shake of his head, Jake muttered, "Come on."

After another five minutes of walking, Romy asked, "So what d'you think _is_ going on here?"

Jake shrugged.

"I dunno. It's weird."

"Tell me about it. I just wanna know what the Hell's going on here," she said as she readjusted how her bag rested on her shoulder.

They were silent for another couple of minutes before Jake said, "I don't get why they'd have brought us here. I mean, why us?"

Romy shrugged.

"All we were doing was going hunting. Hey, maybe the ones who kidnapped us are in like an anti-hunting movement or something," he suggested.

"Yeah, and maybe we got abducted by aliens," Dave shot back at them jokingly.

"Is it really so unlikely that an anti-hunting movement brought us here?" Romy asked seriously.

"Yes, it _is_," Leo replied.

"They wouldn't have the power or the means to do it. Besides, there's only eleven of us. Don't you think they'd have chosen another bigger, _high-status_ group of hunters if they were trying to make a point."

"I think someone's just trying to fuck with us," Rick said from a way forward.

"But still, why us?" Jake asked.

"Who knows," Romy muttered, shaking her head as the group continued.

They walked on in silence for a time, deciding that it would be better if they did not alert anyone- or anything- that they didn't know might be out there, to their presence. The trees that the group found themselves surrounded by seemed as if they would never end. It seemed that they had walked a long way, for hours even, without finding anything.

Eventually, they paused, and, running a hand across his chin, George said, "We should take a rest."

And before anyone said anything more, Seth had flopped down on the ground. A couple of the others joined him in trying to take the moments' rest that they were allowed.

"Tired, Seth?" Romy taunted him, unable to hold the smirk back from her expression.

Seth shot her a look, but otherwise ignored her and tried to recover himself after the initial lengthy long trek. He never had been very fit, but Romy was sure that he was just over-exaggerating as he took in a long, deep breath that looked almost arduous. Romy rolled her eyes at him. _Is _this_ really what dad thought to bring along hunting instead of me? Fuck that._

"Shit, it's hot," Ryan exclaimed lowly, wiping sweat from his forehead.

Romy couldn't disagree with the man. It was hotter here than it had been in her home- however far away that was from this jungle. And the humidity was almost choking. She didn't think she'd ever been anywhere so enclosing- and that was compared to how suffocating her home had been earlier that day.

"How big is this place?" Terry asked as he looked around in the endless jungle expanse before and behind them.

No one had an answer for him though. _What is with this string of utterly pointless questions?_ Romy thought. _Don't they understand that none of us know anything about this place?_ She shook her head, a gesture noticed by none of the others.

* * *

><p>Their rest stop didn't last long, and the group decided that it would be better to keep going whilst they had the light. And since none of them knew how long that they'd been unconscious, they didn't know how much daylight they had left. So the pace they set was as quick as they could go without running.<p>

That was, until they came across the footprint on the floor that was unlike anything that they'd seen before. Leo was the one who saw it first, that strange imprint in the mud. It was like a huge paw print, one with four thick and huge claws obviously protruding.

"What the fuck is that?" Eddie asked, his expression a mix of fear and bewilderment.

Romy felt like echoing the sentiment. Anything with claws like _that_... It didn't bear thinking about. But they couldn't afford _not_ to think about it when they were inside this jungle with the prospect of coming across this _thing_ at any moment. "Okay, we should just- we should just keep moving," George said with a frown.

"Hang on a sec, shouldn't we figure out what this thing is first?" Seth asked.

"How are we gunna figure that out, then?" Romy asked him.

"Could be a bear," Andrew suggested.

"That's _not _a bear print," Rick said, shaking his head.

"Big cat, maybe?" Dave put in.

"Not a big cat print either," Rick answered.

"Seriously, do you guys not pay attention? We're supposed to be hunters."

"Well forgive me for not knowing the prints of random animals that live in countries that I'm never going to hunt in," Andrew said, sarcastically.

"Forget it," George interceded.

"None of us know what that thing is, but if we don't get out of here, we may just find out. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather not meet whatever that thing is."

"Agreed," Jake said with a small nod.

But before they could start walking once more, they heard something. A noise that was close enough to have them all raise their weapons- the motion quickened by the memory of the mystery creature's claws. If that thing was out there, then they certainly hoped that their guns would be enough to stop it. The size of the footprint had Romy doubting it though.

They waited in silence, listening out for whatever it was that they'd heard. _Let it be a bird, _Romy thought, hoping that they weren't about to meet a creature that they couldn't take down. Nothing came though. Nothing even moved. So when Eddie fired a single shot into the jungle, all of them were surprised. A few of them even jumped.

"What did you do that for?" George, who was next to him, asked.

"Something made that noise, didn't it?" Eddie started.

"I was just-"

Eddie never got to finish that sentence. Because his attention was distracted by the three red dots that made a triangular shape on his chest. He moved his hand over it in an attempt to touch it. Only Eddie's hand passed right through it. It was a light, almost like a laser pointer. And as Eddie looked up at the trees in front of them to try and identify who was pointing at him, there was nothing there. No one to see.

"What the fuck is this?" he said.

Famous last words? Probably not. But they _were_ Eddie's. Unless you counted the gurgling sound of blood as it congealed in his throat. The hole blossomed in his chest in an instant, following a quick and sudden blot of light.

"_Jesus_ _Christ_!" Seth yelled, his eyes wide.

"Run!" Leo yelled over the shouts and exclamations of shock and horror.

Romy didn't need telling twice. Neither did the others. They ran through the trees in the opposite direction that the shot that had killed Eddie came from. Branches hit their faces, their arms. It didn't stop them from running. Romy doubted if anything could. But they did eventually; all of them breathless.

"Fuck, man," breathed Rick.

"Shit..." Terry muttered.

"What... the fuck... was that?" Seth wheezed.

"They... killed Eddie..." Dave said, just recovering his breath.

"Who?" Jake asked, looking around at Romy and the men beside him.

"The ones who brought us here?" George put in.

"Why would they... Why would someone...?" Andrew trailed off.

George shrugged.

"Whatever did that to Eddie was _not_ the creature that made that footprint. Whatever did that, shot Eddie on purpose."

The group stared at George until he continued.

"Which means that they brought us here for a reason."

"What reason?" Romy asked, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

His face morphed into a grim expression and he looked around the group seriously.

"Some sort of sick game?" he suggested.

"A _game_?" Ryan said.

"What the fuck?"

"That can't be right, what person would do that?" Leo said.

"The sick bastard that just killed Eddie," Rick said, distastefully.

"Look, we've gotta get out of here. We've gotta be more careful. Because whatever that thing was, we didn't see it. We have to be more alert," George said, assuming control of the group as he so often had done in the past.

"No shouting; no bullshit," he added, directing the comment to Romy and Seth.

Romy nodded. This situation was far more serious than a petty grudge. A man was dead. And for all they knew, any one of them could be next.

"Okay, so how do we get out?" Andrew asked with a frown.

A short silence echoed in response.

"I could climb one of those trees and see if I can see the edge of the jungle," Romy piped up, her voice small.

Her dad didn't want to allow it. He didn't want to even think about what might happen should she fall. But he knew that she was the best climber, the lightest and the most agile of them. She had the best chance of making it up and down safely. Even with that being the case, George still didn't like it.

"Go ahead," Rick said, nudging her arm slightly.

She'd known that Rick had never really liked her that much. Rick had always been one to think about himself- and this situation was no different. Romy waited for her dad to nod at her before turning to one of the trees however. Tossing her bag to Jake, who caught it expertly, Romy threw her gun over her shoulder and hung it on the strap.

She quickly found a tree that was covered in strong-looking vines. She started climbing and was glad to find that the vines held as well as they looked like they should. As good as Romy was at climbing, she still felt nervous. The heat was affecting her; her hands were sweating and she hoped that that wouldn't make her slip.

It didn't, thankfully. She daren't look down though; knowing that if she did, she might lose her nerve. And it didn't take her all that long to reach the top of the tree, but what she saw when she got there did exactly that, however. Peeking out over the tops of the other trees, Romy was able to see something that she never expected to see. Something that had her making her way back down the tree quicker, probably, than she should have done.

"Romy! Slow down," she heard her dad call from far below.

But she couldn't slow down. Not after what she'd seen.

"Seriously, Rom; be careful," Jake yelled.

But she was back on the ground before she knew it. And, eyes wide, Romy turned to the others. She didn't know where to begin. How she could start to explain what she'd seen and make them believe her without thinking that she'd lost her marbles, Romy did not know.

"Romy?" George said.

"What did you see, hun?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Romy said blankly.

"Well, hun, you kind of have to tell us? What was it? Did you see the edge of the jungle?" George asked, trying to determine what was wrong with his daughter.

She gave a nod and pointed to the left.

"It's not far off that way."

"So what's got you so spooked?" Seth sneered.

Romy bit back an angry retort; even if he wasn't going to behave, they were in too much trouble for her to bother with him.

"Listen, don't think I'm crazy, 'kay?" she said, staring at the others.

"Oh yeah, and _that's_ supposed to fill us with confidence?" Dave said as he rolled his eyes.

Romy frowned at him, but continued after a deep breath anyway.

"Well... I saw- out there- there's-"

"Spit it out, girl," Terry said loudly.

"Terry," Jake warned.

"Planets," she finished.

The silence that followed was stunned. Disbelieving, even. Not that Romy had expected them to believe her. It was so ridiculous that _she_ had even almost doubted her own eyes as she'd stared out into the sky she'd seen broken with gaseous spheres and colourful planets.

"This isn't the time for jokes, Romy," her dad cautioned her.

"I'm not joking, dad. Seriously, if you'd have seen it..."

"That's just stupid... _Planets_," Ryan muttered.

"Yeah, well you'll see when we get to the edge of the jungle. You'll see that I'm not lying. And you'll see that whatever this is, it's fucked up."

After a lot of arguing, the men agreed that they could discuss Romy's sanity after they reached the edge of the jungle. All of them were still so painfully aware that Eddie's murderer could still be out there and the fact that they had to get out of there before they met the same fate.

As they started to trudge through the jungle once more though, the only thing on their minds was that they hoped Romy was wrong.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Well hello there. :) I have a few warnings for you guys.<strong>

**Firstly, I have a tendency to start stories and then end up getting behind in updates. So I'll say now that updates might take a long while even though I have this entire story planned out.**

**Secondly, I'm a total noob at Predator Fanfiction. So please do forgive my limited knowledge. I'm trying to learn as much as I can as I'm writing this. But if any of you have any constructive criticism or advice, I'd be very much welcome to it.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys like it and please do let me know what you think. :)**

**Kit xx**


	2. Outnumbered

They made it to the edge of the tree line in only twenty minutes, and as soon as they did, they stopped dead in their tracks. It was as if they were frozen in shock. In horror. All of their eyes were trained straight on the sky and on what Romy had seen from her treetop perch.

"I told you I'm not crazy," Romy whispered as her eyes flickered over the things in the sky that should not have been there.

"Yeah, and now suddenly I find myself doubting _my own_ sanity... Are you guys seeing...?" Ryan asked, trailing off as he didn't want to finish that sentence.

"_Planets_," Jake finished, just as Romy had before.

"So that means..."

"We're... not on Earth," Leo finished, uncertainly.

"What the fuck...?" Rick said blankly.

"How is that even possible?" Romy murmured.

"No idea. But I'm guessing whatever brought us here is what killed Eddie," George said sourly.

"So, what? You're suggesting that we've been abducted by aliens that are out to kill us?" Seth asked with a sarcastic frown.

"Look at the sky, you idiot. How else do you think we got here? Because _our_ space programme's a piece of shit so I can sure as Hell tell you it wasn't them," Romy bit back, unable to stop herself.

"_Romy_," Jake warned, nudging her with his elbow.

"Listen, obviously something fucked up is going on here. We just- we just need to figure out a way- a plan. We need a plan," Leo said, his rational side slightly ruffled by the sight of the foreign planets so close by.

"Right," George said, nodding in agreement.

"So what do we do then?" Andrew enquired, finally tearing his eyes away from the planets.

"We have to find a way off of this... place," George said.

"How're we supposed to do that then?" Ryan asked, throwing his hands up.

"I- I don't know. If we keep walking, we've got to come across something eventually," George said.

With George leading them, the group headed down the steady decline that began immediately after the edge of the tree line. All of them had their guns raised this time, watching out carefully for anything that they might come across on this unfamiliar planet.

As the neared the bottom of the slope, their pace slowed. Not because they were tired, but because the plant life and undergrowth around them began to get thicker; denser. Eventually, George paused.

"This is ridiculous," Dave said.

"I'll agree with that," Terry said with a frown.

"We've got to get off of this hill. These plants are just slowing us down," George said.

"Know what these plants are, garden man?" Seth asked as he untangled his foot from one of the outgrowing roots.

"And how am I supposed to know that? Haven't we _just_ discussed the fact that we're on some sort of alien planet? Like I'm going to know what plants are native in outer space," Dave snapped back, rolling his eyes.

"_Alright_ already. I was just wondering," Seth replied as he took another step forward.

"Come on. Let's get going," Leo said, beginning to walk away again.

Romy and the group of men soon found themselves approaching another set of trees. Though these trees were certainly sparser than those at the top of the hill, they were far bigger; older. So much so that their thick bark acted almost like barrier, funnelling the hunters down a particular pathway. Leading them on a route that they had no idea that they _didn't_ want to go down.

* * *

><p>He had been watching them since he'd dropped them on the planet. They were about to walk into Briar Wolf territory- not that they realised. And not that it bothered him either. It just made the hunt more interesting for him. It gave him a chance to watch how they reacted when attacked.<p>

So far, this group were proving to be more stupid than he'd initially thought them to be. They hadn't realised at all what they were in for. Hadn't realised that they were being hunted by a creature greater than them in so many senses.

So Sh'osha had had to give them a little motivation. Only after they had fired the first shot, of course. He wouldn't fight tarei hsan. _Unworthy prey_. It just wasn't honourable; and it just wasn't something that he _ever_ did.

He watched from his treetop vantage point as the group made their way further into the trees, and closer to danger. Their footsteps were loud. _Too_ loud. They made it far too easy for him to find them. _Even an ooman could hear them with their underdeveloped ears_, Sh'osha thought.

The only one them, in fact, that seemed to be taking the situation as seriously as it really needed to be taken was the female. Which surprised him. He hadn't meant to bring the female into this hunt. He hadn't even been aware that she'd been with the males until he'd taken them, and after observing them, he discovered that they had not been aware of her presence either.

She was intriguing where most of the others were like those that he so often hunted. Even so, Sh'osha never hunted females. Unless they posed some sort of threat, he was contented to follow this ooman's companions and leave her to the elements. And that was only unless she hadn't died before the hunt was completed.

The group stepped through carefully; unaware that what they thought was careful was in fact attracting a lot of unwanted attention. They were unknowingly being watched- and not just by Sh'osha. They were also being watched by the pack of Briar Wolves whose den that they had inadvertently stumbled into.

They didn't realise it, but they were soon to be sprung upon by the beasts. Sh'osha would let them have one of the group, perhaps even two, but no more than that. They _were_ _his_ prey. The Briar Wolves would simply serve to set them on high alert.

Sh'osha tilted his head to the side as he observed them entering the open area that they had filed into without realising. And all he had to do then; was watch as they crumbled into chaos.

* * *

><p>Something pounced out of the undergrowth that the hunters long should have realised was there. Expletives were hurled around as the gunshots started, echoing over the roar of their surprise attacker. The roar that heralded others of the huge, scaly creatures to jump from their hiding places.<p>

The group of humans had _not_ been expecting it in the slightest; even though they should have been. Because if they had looked closely enough, then they would have been able to identify the creature that had left the print they had found with those four, giant claws. But they weren't paying attention to that as they yelled and fired their weapons.

"What the fuck?" Seth yelled, one of his bullets _just _grazing the side of one of the creatures.

There were five Briar Wolves in total. And ten humans. Outnumbered by their prey, the wolves were far bigger and more deadly. And they chose their victims carefully. Some of the men had grouped together, and the Briar Wolves had quickly determined to set after those that had been separated.

Two of the creatures turned on Leo, who had backed off in a direction that no one else had, leaving him alone. The others, being distracted by the three other huge, carnivorous beasts badgering them, could do nothing to help their friend as he emptied his gun of bullets.

One of the wolves launched itself at him, its bodyweight enough to crush Leo without the fact that its long row of sharp teeth then ripping into his neck and almost severing his head from his body. Gore and blood spurted out as those massive claws ripped into Leo's stomach, pulling his insides out into the open.

Most of the others saw it happen, disgusted and angry that they could do nothing to stop it. Their guns fired carefully then, as they focussed their bullets enough to bring one of the wolves down. Two of the others still watched them, ready to attack though.

"What are these things?" one of the men shouted.

But Dave didn't hear that question. And Dave did not see his friend, Leo, die as the others did. Because Dave had been separated just like Leo. But the creature he unknowingly faced was one even more deadly than those attacking the others. Because Sh'osha had seen his opportunity and taken it.

The man had run off from the others; deserted them. It was dishonourable, and something that Sh'osha saw happen all too often in his hunts. _There's always one_, he thought, almost tempted to shake his head.

Dave never saw Sh'osha coming, and no one ever saw Dave again.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Romy, she found herself with one of the wolves between her and the rest of the group. She scowled as she pointed her gun at the creature, focussing exactly on where she wanted to hit it. One shot at point-blank range met its mark in the skull of the huge beast- a shot that would have killed a normal creature.<p>

But this _thing_ wasn't normal as Romy then found out. Because, as it so happened, all that her shot had done was alerted the creature to her presence. As it turned on her, its eyes became as focussed on her as she was on it. Romy fired her gun again. And again. It took five shots before she managed to pierce its eye- the one seemingly weak spot on the huge creature's body.

Romy let out a long breath as she looked at the beast's body. As it had slowly advanced on her, she'd stepped further and further back; but she hadn't realised that stepping away from one beast had only brought her closer to another.

From out of the brush, behind her, another Briar Wolf pounced. It had made enough noise before it had however, for Romy to turn and miss the body-crushing weight piling on top of her. She was _not_ quite quick enough to save her gun though; and she felt it wrenched from her hands.

_Shit_, Romy thought in that quick moment that she found herself without a weapon. She knew she was defenceless, just as much as the creature knew she was. All she could do was try to outrun the beast before it caught her. Romy thought to perhaps climb a tree, but suspected that the creature could probably catch her in a second even if she tried it.

So she just ran and hoped that she'd somehow find a way to get out of her current situation. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,_ Romy thought as she heard the beast behind her, hot on her heels. And that was when she saw the stick in the middle of her path; the stick that she might just be able to use against the creature. She grabbed it, not daring to pause lest the beast caught her.

But before Romy could even turn and try to use her makeshift weapon, the beast knocked her to the ground. Her weight fell on top of the stick that she'd been planning to use as her only defence; the stick that she felt, more than heard, _crack_. Mentally, Romy cursed. But, knowing that there was nothing that she could do, she turned on the beast with that splintered end of her improvised and pointedly pathetic weapon.

And when she did turn, Romy saw the beast had backed off, standing just metres from her; and it was watching her every move. Its jaw opened wide as it glared at her, gleaming eyes focussed absorbedly on her. She didn't know what to do, so instead hefted her stick, ready to swing at the thing.

It charged at her, moving quicker than Romy knew that she ever could. All she could do was brace herself for the claws that this beast intended to use to rip her flesh from her body. The jaw that opened so wide that she was sure it could swallow her head whole without even having to use the sharp row of teeth that gnashed hungrily at her.

Romy closed her eyes and swung her arm and the stick along with it, hoping to beat back whatever was coming for her first. Claw or skull, it really made no difference if she was going to die anyway. But she'd be damned if she was going to just _let_ it kill her- _eat_ her. So she swung, determined to hit _something_.

And as soon as she did, she was stunned to find that her stick did _not _meet its mark. It didn't meet anything, in fact. _My one fucking chance, and I _miss_? _Romy thought in that split second that the realisation hit; in that split second when her stick did _not_. She opened her eyes to see that though _she_ hadn't hit the beast, someone had.

It lay on the ground in front of her, just inches away, two long and deep slashes raked across the length of its body from the neck down. Blood, vivid and red spilled from the deep gashes and she watched as it dripped onto the grass beneath it.

The lifelessness in its formerly bright eyes proved its death; but as to who had killed it, she had no idea. That was until the thing virtually appeared before her as if from thin air.

Romy's mouth fell open at the sight of the towering humanoid in front of her. This thing wasn't human, that much was instantly obvious. He wore some sort of metallic armour that protected parts of his massive body. Other than that though, he wore only something that looked like a loincloth and some sort of netted string vest. Beneath that Romy could see that his skin looked thick, the colour of it a light brown mottled with both darker browns and greens.

No human could be as tall as he was. He must have been over seven feet tall, or that's how it looked from where she was on the ground. His muscles we huge; his body better toned than a bodybuilder. There seemed to be weapons all over him, no attempt to conceal them having been made.

Romy didn't know what this thing was, but he was _terrifying_. Truly terrifying. He was like some sort of giant-like creature, a monster.

Romy couldn't even see his face, hidden as it was behind that strange metal mask. Thick, black dreadlocks stemmed behind it, almost like hair with gold and silver rings adorning them. Her eyes trailed down the creature until they fell upon the two long and jagged blades attached at his wrist.

She didn't know what to do or what to say. He had just saved her, hadn't he? But he had a certain air about him that suggested he could change his mind at any moment. So Romy simply settled on closing her mouth and continuing to stare at the creature that was obviously staring back at her behind that expressionless mask.

He tilted his head at her. It wasn't a hostile movement; but one that seemed almost curious. And she suddenly felt as though she was under the creature's intense scrutiny as she sat there on the ground, still clutching her useless weapon. Romy flinched slightly as the two serrated blades retracted to be hidden along the length of his huge forearm.

Sh'osha made no other movement though as he watched her. He could clearly see the heart beat in her chest quicken and her breathing come out in short, anxious gasps. She was afraid of him, he knew. It was an expected reaction and one that caused him great pleasure. _The female is right to be afraid, _hethought.

But she had surprised him with her tenacity and her reluctance to die. She, it turned out, was more skilled than some of the males with her that had already been killed.

She had fought back even to the point where she had known she would die, even with so little a thing as that broken stick that would have done nothing to protect her from the Briar Wolf. And Sh'osha respected that.

He also felt a flash of anger at the males who should have been protecting her. Wasn't she one of their pups? It was their job to keep her safe and they had let her run away and put herself in danger. His sense of honour for putting her into this situation led him to intervene when the Briar Wolf had charged at her.

"Hey Romy! You alright?" Jake called from the direction she'd run from.

Sh'osha watched as her head turned slightly in the direction of the voice. The female didn't move at all apart from that. He was sure that she didn't dare. And that was something that he was again pleased to see.

"_Jesus Christ_! Romy, _run_!" Jake yelled when he finally caught sight of the thing standing over her.

And that was when a shot was fired, missing Sh'osha by mere centimetres. Calmly, his head turned and he saw the female's companions; the ones that he was hunting. Turning his head in the direction that the shot came from was all that he had to do for his plasmacaster to fire a shot that left large gaping expanse where Jake's head should have been.

Romy flinched at the shot and her eyes widened in horror as blood sprayed out from the new wound. It took a moment for her to realise that she'd just witnessed Jake- the man that had been like an older brother to her- killed. And by the thing that just saved her.

"Jake!" she cried out, holding back unbidden tears as she watched his body drop to the floor.

The creature in front of her, the one whose expression was hidden behind that impassive mask, just turned its tilted head back to her. And as the other men and her dad appeared from behind the slight rise, he was gone. He had disappeared seemingly into the same manner that he had shown himself to her from.

The men quickly surrounded Romy, their guns pointed in any direction that the giant humanoid could have disappeared into. But Romy's dad ran up to her and had a hold of her arms. He'd helped her to her feet before she knew it though. Tears brimmed, overflowing in her eyes as she stared at Jake's headless body.

"Jake..." she whispered through her sobs.

George pulled his daughter close to him, letting her bury her face into his chest. Letting her cry out her tears for the dear friend that she had lost. The others just stayed silent as they stood around awkwardly, some of them attending to their newly acquired wounds; some of them watching the trees around for signs of movement.

"Oh, Romy, hun. I'm so sorry," was all that George could say, and he knew that it would do nothing to comfort her.

"What the fuck was that thing?" Ryan asked, grimly.

"Why do we all keep asking questions that _clearly_ nobody's going to know the answer to?" Terry asked, a scowl forming on his features.

"I was just asking-"

"Well, it was stupid, because obviously none of us are going to know what it was-" Terry bit back.

"Actually... I think that I _do_ know," Andrew piped up eventually.

Six stunned faces looked up at the man; even Romy, who stared at him through tear-misted blue eyes.

"You _do_?" George questioned him.

Andrew gave a nod.

"I think so. I mean, it looks just like something that I read about once."

"Speak up then, man!" Terry virtually commanded of Andrew.

After throwing Terry an annoyed glance, Andrew took a deep breath; and then he started to explain.

"I'd been talking to a couple of friends about aliens, you know Area 51 and stuff, and then I ended up on this website," he started.

None of them were quite that surprised to hear the tale begin that way. Andrew was always on the computer, looking up something or other. But no one said anything or tried to interrupt. They were all far too absorbed in wanting to find out what that creature was to care about Andrew's nerdy habits.

"Well, I was on this forum, and there was this one post; and it was talking about all this top secret shit."

"Short version please," Rick said as he looked around them and hoped not to catch sight of what Andrew had just called an alien.

"1987, an American special forces team were on a mission in Central America. Only two of them made it out of the jungle. They said that they had been attacked by some creature that basically fits the description of what we just saw."

"That's it? That's all you know?" Seth asked, his eyes wide as if he was desperate for more knowledge.

Andrew shook his head and continued.

"If you'd let me finish," he started, throwing a look at Seth.

"They said that the creature was more advanced than them, technology-wise. It was bigger, stronger and quicker than them. And it saw in infrared... They said it was hunting them... I thought it was bullshit at the time, but... we _all_ just saw that..."

"We're dealing with an alien, then? One that wants to... _hunt_ us?" George asked for confirmation.

"Looks that way," Andrew answered gravely.

"So he's some sort of predator... and we're the prey," Romy whispered. There could have been many responses to what Romy had said; but the only one that was uttered was one that Romy had not been expecting.

"_He_?" Seth said, turning on her.

Romy straightened herself, leaning away from her dad's embrace until he let her go. Wiping away the tears that had left stained pathways down her cheeks, Romy blinked up at her annoying neighbour.

"Trust me, he's _definitely_ male."

The silence that followed echoed between the group. It was almost an awkward silence; but it was one that Seth used to formulate a plan. A plan that not everyone would like.

"You know, that kind of makes sense," he said, his voice causing the rest of the group to turn to him.

"What does?" Ryan enquired.

"Well, it's a guy, right?"

Seth didn't wait for the others to answer him before carrying on.

"It makes sense that he wouldn't kill Romy then."

The rest of the group stared at Seth blankly, not really understanding where he was going with this train of thought.

"Well Romy's a _girl_. And he didn't kill her- looks like he _saved_ her. Maybe he even, like, _likes_ her or something. Maybe we could use her as bait to draw him out and then kill the fucker."

His words hung in the air. And Romy could only blink for a second before regaining her composure.

"What... the _fuck_?" Romy said.

"Are you _on_ something, Seth?"

"That's a ridiculous idea," George snapped at his next-door neighbour, suddenly seeing the side of him that Romy so often saw.

"I dunno," Rick started, eyeing Romy and her dad carefully.

"What other plan have we got?" Ryan put in.

"You're _serious_?" Romy asked, her head whipping around to Rick and Ryan.

"All you'll have to do is go out a bit further than us. We'll have your back," Seth said.

Romy wasn't so sure that she believed that last comment; and she certainly didn't trust _Seth_ to _have her back_. The only person that she _did_ trust was her dad- which worried her more. Because if the two of them couldn't convince the others that outnumbered them to agree with them, then she could be forced to go along with their absurd plan.

"_No_," she and her dad said simultaneously.

"Listen, it's a chance," Andrew put in, agreeing with the two men.

"No. It isn't," George said as he stared at the three with a harsh glare.

"You want to send _my daughter_ out there as _bait_ for that thing? It's _not_ going to happen."

Romy felt a flash of relief towards her dad. _At least, _he's_ not agreeing with them_, she thought thankfully.

"It's our only choice," Terry sighed.

_Fuck, that's all of them_, Romy thought, knowing that the chances of her getting out of this plan were getting smaller and smaller by the second.

"What the fuck, you guys? Are you just- just seriously gunna send me out there knowing that there's an extremely large chance that it'll kill me? That you _won't _be able to stop it? Because you're asking me to just walk out there as an open target. I can't do that. I _won't_," Romy said, her tone final.

None of the five in agreement with Seth's plan said anything after that. Only George spoke.

"Right. Exactly. Like I said, it won't happen."

"Well, actually, they don't need to agree for us to do this," Rick said quietly.

Both Romy and her dad's eyes widened as they stared at the selfish man. _Did he... Did he _really_ just suggest that they're going to send me out there regardless of what I say?_ she thought.

"Yeah, you're right Rick..." Seth said, staring at Romy with narrowed eyes.

"I'm _not_ going out there!" Romy half-shouted, taking a step back from the others.

And that was all that it took for George to step in front of her and raise his gun, becoming a virtual shield that protected her from the others.

"I think you all need to _step back_, calm down and forget this fucking _ridiculous_ plan," George said, as calmly as he could manage.

Romy could barely even fathom what to do as she stood there. _Fuck I wish that I hadn't lost my gun_, she thought as three guns rose to point at them. She gulped.

"You've got two choices, you go willingly or we make you do it," Seth said.

He was holding one of the guns that were trained on Romy and her dad. And Romy noticed that he looked like he was quite enjoying having this measure of power over the group. It was _his_ plan to send Romy out alone, after all.

"This is stupid. Put the fucking guns down _now_," Romy yelled from behind her dad.

"So you're agreeing then?" Andrew said, lowering his gun only slightly.

_This is it then?_ Romy thought. _They're going to make me do it?_ She shrank back slightly as Ryan stepped toward her.

"_Back off," _George half-growled.

"Look, George, she's our only choice. Put your gun down and relax," Terry said, trying to reason with the man.

"No. I _won't_ let you get my daughter killed," George shouted angrily.

"George, don't make us do this," Terry said.

"You don't have to, you know- you could just drop this stupid idea and there'll be no harm done," Romy said from over her dad's shoulder.

"Yes, we do," Seth bit back.

What occurred next happened too quickly for anyone to really to know what had happened until it was over. Rick and Seth had come at George, trying to yank the gun from his hands. They'd fought; struggled. A gun had gone off. Someone had been hit. And the fallout began.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the observers, Romy, Terry, Ryan and Andrew, watched and tried to identify who had been shot. But as her dad hit the ground, Romy knew that there was no hope. She saw where the bullet had struck straight away and watched as the blood started to dribble from her dad's half-open mouth.

"Dad?" she whispered, sinking to her knees beside him.

Her dad's eyes met hers and she could tell that he was in an immense amount of pain. _They shot him. They- they weren't supposed- they _shot_ him_, Romy thought, for what coherent thought she could figure out.

"It must have pierced his lung," Ryan murmured.

"I- I didn't mean to," Rick said.

"He- he just wouldn't..." he trailed off, staring at George as he took his final breaths.

"No," Romy said to no one but herself.

"You fucking... you- you killed- you killed him," she said, holding back the tears as she turned on the others.

They stared at her blankly, the blood that wasn't her own on her hands was bright against her skin. Romy stood up and glared at them for what felt like an eternity, her stare not wavering for a second.

"At least it's an easy choice for what we do next then," Seth said eventually.

Her piercing blue eyes flashed to him harshly for a moment and she saw the seriousness and slight amusement in his eyes.

"Fuck you, Seth," Romy whispered furiously.

And before anyone could reply, Romy was running. She was running faster than she ever had before- faster even than she had when Eddie had been killed. Faster than when that beast had been chasing her. The only thing that she could think as she ran was that she had to get away. She had to.

"_Fuck_," Seth shouted as he watched her disappear into the trees.

The men set off after her, knowing that their best chance of survival lay in finding Romy. But Romy knew that _she_ would do better on her own than playing bait for those back-stabbing, murderous men. So she ran. And they ran. And all Sh'osha had done was watch as the group had separated and started to destroy each other.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Well, this chapter ended up being slightly longer than I'd planned... Ah well, never mind. :) I managed to get this finished just in time though; I'm off on holiday tomorrow for two weeks, but I may have another chapter done by the time I get back. :)<strong>

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I really appreciate it! :D**

**Kit xx**


	3. Survival

Sh'osha had watched his prey from a short distance away. Tactically, he had chosen to let them think that they could scare him away with their measly presence; their numbers. If he had wanted to, he could have killed them all right then and there. But that wasn't the point of the hunt. It wasn't the point of taking them all from their planet.

If he had wanted to, Sh'osha could have slaughtered them all there. But this was a hunt. _His_ hunt. And Sh'osha liked to keep things interesting. And he liked to keep his hunts going for as long as possible- providing that his prey were worthy enough.

So he'd watched as the males surrounded the female he'd just saved. He'd watched as they warily watched the trees for signs of him and tried to comfort the female- though _he_ saw no need. She was safe, wasn't she? _He _hadn't harmed her. It had been _them_ that had put her in danger by leaving her unprotected.

But as Sh'osha had continued watching them, he heard their plan easily. And his years of hunting oomans had given him an adequate enough knowledge of their language to understand it. He was almost affronted by what he'd heard though.

It seemed to him that the youngest male was trying to imply that he had some sort of affection for the ooman female. _How wrong humans can be in their assumptions_, he thought, tilting his head slightly.

As his prey's heated discussion drew out, he observed the group quickly splitting in two. It had happened before. It was still predictable. Sh'osha had been doing this for so many years that he even wondered if it was worth hunting oomans anymore. If something about this group was not different enough to change his mind, Sh'osha was almost considering picking another species to hunt.

And just as he'd thought that, he watched the males turn on each other. A shot was fired and Sh'osha watched the hot blood flowing from the wound of the female's father. It was a fatal wound, he observed quickly. The female fell to her knees beside him whilst the others did nothing. She was the only one who cared for the male it seemed.

Sh'osha stared at the blood on her hands; blood that wasn't her own, but blood that stood out against the heat emitted from her body. She stood up and turned on the others. The female was alone and unarmed amongst what now were enemies and she still stood against them. _At_ _least_ she's _atypical_, Sh'osha found himself thinking as he watched her defy what could have meant death for her at any moment.

And then she ran, unarmed and alone, into the trees. She couldn't outrun _him_- she had no chance- Sh'osha knew. But she had a fair chance against her ooman pursuers. The female was interesting, at least. _If only I hunted females_, Sh'osha thought, suddenly wondering if the only ooman that he'd brought back with him that was not tarei hsan was the female.

* * *

><p><em>Every man for themselves, I guess<em>, Romy thought as she kept on running, knowing that the men she'd just an hour ago have called friends- _and Seth_- chased after her. They didn't seem inclined to stop until she did, so Romy was determined that she wasn't going to stop.

She was glad at how fit she kept herself, for once. It finally turned out that all her effort had been worth it. Romy was sure that they'd wear out before she did, and as soon as that happened she'd be safe. _Wrong_, she reminded herself. _That thing and Gods only know what else could be out there_. Blinking away from that thought, she told herself, _One problem at a time._

Branches hit at her face, whipping her skin and leaving tiny red cuts as reminders. Those red cuts were nothing compared to the drying blood that still covered her hands. Romy had tried to wipe it on her shirt; she had tried to rid herself of the reminder of her dad's murder. She'd _tried_.

But as she ducked under a branch and fled as fast as her feet could carry her, Romy's hands were still vivid with the intense and hated colour of her dad's blood. The memory was plain for her to see. So the best thing that she could do was just avoided looking at them.

Romy could hear the group behind her, still too close for her liking and still definitely on her trail. It seemed that they were as determined to find her as she was to escape them. But Romy was determined not to let them win. She wouldn't let them use her so that they could survive. _Those bastards don't deserve to live_, Romy thought angrily.

Ducking under a huge, low-hanging leaf, one that almost rivalled that of a palm tree's branch, Romy found herself stopping dead. She had to bite her bottom lip to stop the scream that threatened, and she bit her lip so hard that she could soon taste the blood in her mouth.

Right in front of her, was a body. Hanging from its feet by one of the many long vines in this jungle, Romy couldn't tear her eyes away from it. The stench of semi-decaying flesh was enough to make her nose crinkle; but it was the fact that there was no skin at all covering what was, she supposed, a man. Bugs and parasites had started to eat away at the exposed tissue, leaving behind a horrible sight.

And yet, Romy didn't honestly find herself that surprised that something so vile could be left in this place. _Everything else in this place is dangerous. This just looks like some sort of warning_, she thought as she shook herself out of the blind shock that had seemingly taken over her and skirted around the edge of the small area the body hung in.

Her pursuers were far closer to her now and Romy ran for all that she had left in her. She just hoped that they would be as stunned by the decomposing body as she had been. She just hoped that that would buy her back the time that she'd just lost.

So when Romy heard the exclamations and shouts behind her, a wave of relief passed over her. It was a small almost-victory, but it was one that meant Romy stood more of a chance of getting away.

She was starting to get tired. Running was usually fine for Romy, she did it all the time; but the compressing and overwhelming heat made breathing harder. It made _everything_ harder.

Romy came across another sort of clearing, one side blocked off by a rock face that steadily grew out from her left. She got there after another twenty minutes of solid running, when she began to feel so light-headed that she knew she ought to stop. She hadn't had anything to eat, or, more importantly, _drink_, since she'd woken up on this planet. _They haven't either though_, she reminded herself. _And with Seth... Hopefully they'll be too far to-_

Romy's thoughts were interrupted as she stared in front of her. Something else- something _huge_- stood before her, and Romy found herself thinking that it looked almost liked a genetically altered rhinoceros; its horns side by side instead of one before the other. Its tan coloured hide appeared to be covered in purple patches too.

Romy honestly had no idea what it was, or if it was some sort of experiment from Earth brought to this planet as she had been. But it was obviously dangerous. And it was _obviously_ staring at her. So Romy didn't move; And neither did the creature before her.

_Why is it that I keep bumping into random things that look like they'd easily be able to kill me?_ she wondered blankly. But as soon as she'd thought that, she questioned if she'd been right about this creature wanting to kill her. It almost looked like it was feeling the same way as she was about coming across a strange, alien being for the first time. Romy quickly lowered her eyes from the beast, trying to avoid showing any type of aggression toward the beast- and trying to avoid aggravating it.

Her movement, as she stepped backward until her back pressed against the rock face, was followed closely by the beast in front of her. It didn't seem like it was going to attack her; and it didn't seem like it actually wanted to eat her. But when the creature heard something, most probably the men who used to be her friends, its small ears pricked up.

Romy had only a moment before the beast charged at her. If she hadn't have been watching it so intently, then she might have missed her chance- and she might have squashed between the creature and the rock face.

But Romy _was_ quick enough to launch herself to the right, so that the beast hurtled headfirst into the solid rock wall. Unfortunately for Romy, that only looked to give the beast what would be a rather nasty headache for sometime later and nothing else. So she climbed to rock face as well as she could.

Her fingers were soon sore and flakes of dried blood chipped off them as she fought to keep a solid grip. The beast was still looking at her, almost as if it was waiting for her to slip and fall. Romy didn't slip _or_ fall though. _I'm not about to have lived through what amounts to a _more_ than shitty day to just die falling off a cliff and being trampled on by some random beast_, she thought as she pushed herself to climb further up.

When she was over half way up the rock face, Romy found a small alcove. A tiny indent in the large surface that was just big enough for Romy to fit herself into; just big enough for Romy to hide herself in. Which, apparently, was perfect timing, as she soon heard the shots of five all too familiar guns.

Romy pressed herself back into the rocks as she tried to blend in with them. If she could just stay out of sight while they were distracted by that creature, then they might just accept that they'd lost track of her. _Here's hoping_, she thought. The shots continued and Romy heard the beast's roar, but from where she was hidden, she couldn't determine what had actually happened.

And all at once, the shooting stopped. Romy didn't want to chance a look down yet, but the voices around her told her that her pursuers were still alive; all of them. _Unfortunately_, she thought grimly. Romy didn't know how long she sat there as still as she could force herself to be; she only listened out for the muffled voices and tried, without success, to hear what they were saying.

Eventually though, the voices quieted and stopped altogether. She wondered if they'd moved off; but there was no way that she dared to risk a look. Even the slightest movement could have alerted them to her presence. So Romy just sat with her back against the hard rock wall and hoped that nothing else thought to rest in her little safe haven.

It wasn't until half an hour later, when Romy was almost sure that she was as safe as she could make herself that she let herself cry. Let herself grieve. For Jake. For her dad. She even let herself cry for her own sad situation; allowed herself to feel such self-pity that, after her mother had left them, she had sworn to herself she'd never feel again.

She'd _never_ wanted to feel that way again; and here she was, actually allowing herself to do so. It would be impossible for her not to now though. Here, while she was safe, or relatively so, was the best time to let out her emotions. _I can't afford to break down when I need to focus_, Romy thought hazily between choked back and silent sobs.

_This is _so_ wrong_, she couldn't help but think. _They were supposed to be my friends- _dad's_ friends_. _They weren't supposed to... It _shouldn't_ be this way_. Romy allowed herself to continue like that, her train of thought fuelling her now-flowing tears, on the promise to herself that when she woke up in the morning, her pities and tears would be gone. She let herself cry herself to sleep hoping that tomorrow would be better.

Tomorrow she would focus. Tomorrow she would figure out a plan. And tomorrow she would realise that there was about as much chance of her surviving alone and unarmed as there was her voluntarily kissing Seth.

* * *

><p>He could see her from where he crouched. This female was <em>definitely<em> more interesting than the males. Even now, her survival instinct kept her going. The males had shortly lagged behind her and Sh'osha had easily seen that they wouldn't catch her if they continued at their pace. They didn't. And they were unable to see her in her current and barely concealed location.

For what was supposed to be a group of hunters, these males were weak. They couldn't even track one of their own successfully- and hunting oomans, at times, could be _so_ easy. These males were pathetic and Sh'osha knew that they were unworthy of his time. The female, however; had potential.

She sat in a tiny alcove that he could so easily see her in; that he could so easily _kill_ her in. But he didn't. _She_ had proven to him that she had the will to survive; now he was going to take the time to watch her, instead of the others. It would be particularly interesting because of the fact that he had filled the planet with dangerous beasts, all of which could kill her in a second, and she was unarmed.

_This ooman female could be in a lot of trouble... Or she could survive_, he thought- more like wondered.

* * *

><p>The next morning brought with it even more of that same sweltering heat. Romy woke, glad that she had the shade of her tiny inlet of rock to shield her from the morning's light. But Romy soon had to leave the sheltered protection of her alcove because of the many things that she now needed; none of which could be found inside there with her.<p>

So Romy climbed further up the rocks, choosing to try and put yet more distance between her and the men who would have to take the long way around just to reach her. And that was _if_ they figured out what direction she'd gone in. _This planet has to be big enough for one girl to get lost in, doesn't it?_ Romy thought hopefully.

But as she'd reached the top of the rock face, Romy was once more surprised at what she found. _Is no place on this planet the same?_ she thought desperately. Instead of more trees, like she'd hoped to find, the rocks continued. It almost looked to Romy a little like a large expanse of volcanic rock stretching out in front of her.

_Just go with it_, she told herself as she started walking. She had a task that she knew if she didn't complete then things could get rapidly worse for her. _I need water_, Romy thought. But she couldn't find water anywhere as she climbed over misshapen rock after jagged stone.

Though her trainers were good enough for a hike in the forest, they were not faring too well on this alien planet. They were so scuffed and even a little torn that Romy was relatively certain that they might soon fall apart. _I don't need any more things to worry about_, Romy thought, pausing briefly to check them and making a mental note to be more careful with them.

As the day wore on, and Romy became increasingly thirsty, she had still not made it far enough to get out of the rock field. And there was no sign of water anywhere. Romy ran her tongue over her chapped and split lips to soothe them slightly. But it barely made a difference.

"Fuck," she said, the word slipping out of her mouth in a raspy whisper.

What was worse is that by what appeared to be midday, Romy started to get the distinct impression that someone was following her. And with the group of men probably having the same problem she was, and probably being miles behind her; Romy could only think that what was following her was the thing that had killed Jake, or something else entirely.

Neither of those options was a good one. And Romy was pretty sure that running in the state she was in would get her nowhere. _If I don't find water soon, it won't matter what's following me_... Romy's thoughts trailed off, but she kept her eyes wide for impending trouble. She'd run if she had to; she just hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

_I wish I had my bag; and my gun_, Romy thought, annoyed with herself for leaving the former with her dad's body and losing the latter when that creature had almost killed her. She couldn't risk going back for either- not that she was too sure that she _could_ find her way back there. But the fact that her bag had a bottle of water and a couple of Alpen bars inside it was almost tempting enough to make her try. _No_, she told herself. _That would be stupid_.

Romy would later be glad that she had continued instead of turning back, because, eventually, she came across what looked exactly like a freshwater river of the brightest blue colour. It took all that she had not to dive, headfirst, straight into the water. But she held herself back, assuming that there were likely to be things in the water that she didn't want to meet, just as there were on land.

"I wonder if it's drinkable," Romy said to no one but herself.

She had no way to tell though. No water purification kit. No way to boil it. And with the way she was staring at the water, as thirsty as she'd ever let herself become, Romy knew that she was just going to have to take a chance. _Shit, I hope this doesn't kill me_, she thought hopefully as she knelt down.

With nothing to keep the water in, she had to use her hands to drink. Still-outlined with her dad's blood, Romy rinsed her hands thoroughly before cupping her hands together to drink her fill. She drank a tentative sip at first, but tasting nothing immediately wrong with it, Romy drank more. And, even then, she was careful to stay away from the water's edge as she knelt near it.

Of course, that was her plan. But Romy was being so careful to avoid the monstrous creatures that could lurk in the water, that she didn't remember that those who lived on land would be as attracted to the water as she was.

Until she heard something behind her. Something big. And as soon as the sound reached her ears, Romy let the water in her hands slip through her fingers. She held her breath as she turned her head to the side, not knowing what to expect.

Out of the corner of her eye, Romy caught sight of something she wished she hadn't. It was another one of the rhino creatures she had only just escaped from by scaling the rock face the previous day. It was looking at her just as the other one had. And it was ready to charge.

From where she was sat, the only way out, aside from going past the creature, was through the water. And, as much as she liked swimming, she had her reservations about what was in this water. The thing behind her snorted, hot breath billowing from its nostrils.

_Decision made_, Romy thought, quickly throwing herself into the water before the creature could make a move. The water was colder than she'd thought it would be- and far less clear than she wanted it to be. Even so, Romy swam under the slightly murky, blue water until she was sure that she was relatively far away from where the creature was.

She surfaced when her need for air surpassed her need to be away from the creature. She burst out of the water and her dark hair stuck to her face. She quickly brushed the black strands out of her face and looked around. Romy found herself on the other side of the river, still unable to reach the river's bottom. _Gotta get out of here_, Romy thought, throwing a short glance at where the creature stood, now drinking from the river and completely ignoring her, it seemed.

She swam off to the shore and pulled herself out of the water, glad that she'd encountered nothing in the cloudy but bright blue water. Her only problem then was that she was soaking wet, dripping a trail of water behind her as she squelched away from the river.

After locating a source of water though, Romy made sure that she didn't lose track of it. She had no idea how long she'd be on this planet, but water was essential. And so was food, the next issue on her list of necessities. But since the only creatures she had met were huge and there'd be no chance at her taking them down, she wasn't sure how she was going to find food for herself. She didn't even know if the creatures _were_ edible.

"Plant life it is," Romy murmured to herself, settling on the new problem of how to determine what plants would kill her or not.

* * *

><p>Romy had no idea how it had happened. She had just been walking around for hours, collecting what could have been edible plants and berries- if they were or not, she had decided was going to be a task for later. That was until she'd heard something, a small noise not too far from her but its maker hidden from view by the low hanging vines and large tree trunks.<p>

She _wanted_ to investigate; but Romy knew how much of a bad idea that would be. She was almost certain that if she did go looking for whatever creature- _or creatures_, she thought_- _had made that noise then she wouldn't have much of a chance at surviving.

As it turned out, however; Romy didn't _have_ to go looking to see what had made the noise, because the culprits stepped out about fifteen feet in front of her. The sight of them was enough to make her drop everything she'd been collecting for the past few hours.

In front of her stood four men that were perhaps worse than any creature she could have imagined- even the big guy with all the weapons that had saved her. They were worse because they had betrayed her and her dad. They were supposed to be loyal friends and, in her opinion, it had turned out that they were more monster than most of the other creatures she'd come across- including the ones that had tried to kill her.

The men in front of her stopped dead in their tracks as they caught sight of Romy. For a moment, all five humans just stood and stared at each other, saying nothing. Romy noticed that they all seemed a little worse for wear- far more so than she was anyway.

Terry's eye was almost purple with bruising, so much so that it looked as if someone had punched him. She could see a large tear in the upper thigh of Andrew's trousers and noticed that his leg was bleeding, the wound covered in a badly and hastily made bandage.

Rick looked as if he'd been dragged across cement floor by a car from the way a large graze trailed up his entire left side. The skin of his arm and the side of his face was red and raw, tiny bits of dirt intermingled with the blood that had yet to scab over.

Seth appeared to have a tear in his shirt that was similar to the one in Andrew's trousers, but it was much shorter, as if he had just managed to move out of the way before a huge talon could rip out his guts. And they were all dirty- extremely so, she saw.

The thing that caught Romy's attention then though, was that Ryan was significantly absent. She didn't have the time to wonder what had happened to him; and, in all honestly, she didn't really care. Whatever it was that they had met, Romy was just incredibly glad that she hadn't come across it too.

Romy was well aware that they were studying her just as she was studying them- she just hoped that they couldn't see her next actions ticking over in her mind. She just hoped that they weren't quick enough to realise her obvious course of action.

She, once again, found herself running as fast as she could in the opposite direction to the men. She heard them behind her, following her again, but she continued to run. Romy was just grateful that she hadn't had any gunshots fired in her direction just yet.

Knowing that, this time, she wouldn't be able to keep up her pace for too long, Romy decided to do the only thing that she could think of doing. Straight in front of her was a tree that looked relatively climbable- for _her_ anyway. If she couldn't climb it before they got too close, then they'd catch her. She only had one shot; and she took it.

The lower branches of the tree were protruding and thick; strong enough to even hold the men that Romy was running from. It was the higher branches that Romy needed to reach. Because, although they too were still reasonably thick, they were more sparsely separated from each other; and Romy knew that the men after her could not climb as she could. If she reached those branches quickly enough, then she'd be too far away for them to touch.

She scrambled to a halt in front of the tree and dug her fingers into the bark as she manoeuvred up the branches. Romy didn't turn her head or pause to see where the men were, or if they were trying to follow her up the tree. She just climbed, knowing that she only had a little further to go before they could not follow.

A smile of triumph crossed Romy's face as she pulled herself up onto one of the higher branches. Only then did she dare to look down at the ground. She was higher than she'd thought she would be, but it didn't matter. _As long as they can't reach me_, she thought, her smile still wide on her lips.

Not really surprising her; Terry, Andrew, Rick and Seth _hadn't_ tried to make the climb after her. They hadn't even _tried_. The smile faded from Romy's face as she looked at them, a frown replacing it. She hadn't realised before what she'd done when she'd chosen to climb the tree. She hadn't realised that she'd effectively trapped herself up there with no escape.

"This whole planet and you guys _actually_ manage to find me? How the fuck did you wangle that one?" Romy shouted, trying to establish some sort of conversation as she regained her breath.

"Shut it, and come down," yelled Andrew.

_They don't really expect me to do that, do they?_ Idiots, she huffed to herself with a roll of her eyes. Romy wiped some of the sweat from her forehead away with the back of her hand as she rested her back against the trunk of the tree.

"Not until you tell me how you found me," she retorted.

"We found your tracks; you didn't do a very good job of covering them up," Seth sneered.

"Now come down; we've told you how we did it."

"Did you actually think that I'd come down because you answered me? I know you're thick, but _really,_ Seth?"

Romy knew she was playing with fire right now, but she couldn't help it. They'd killed her dad and then sought to use her to save themselves. They were hunting her and had guns pointed her way at that very moment. And they deserved all the resistance she could give then. _Because they deserve to die_, she thought resolutely. _And mocking Seth whenever possible is _always_ worth it._

"Just come down, Romy," Terry said.

"Fat chance. I'm well aware that none of you can climb like I can, _and_ I know how heavy you all are. Face it; there's no chance that you'll be able to reach me up here and the only way you could get me down would be by _dragging_ me."

There was a long pause in which all Romy knew was that the men below were discussing something in hushed voices.

"Maybe not; but I think you're forgetting that _we're_ the ones with the guns Romy. Come down before we have to make you," Rick yelled eventually.

She didn't have an answer for that. Romy was well aware that they had weapons; just as aware as she was that some of them were a better shot than Seth. It almost hurt to hear Rick say that; after all, he'd been the one who'd shot her dad. Steeling herself to lie through her doubts, Romy shouted back her reply.

"Seriously? I know you're not going to shoot me. You _need_ me, remember?"

"_Romy_," Andrew warned.

"Screw you guys; you didn't shoot me before and you're not going to shoot me now!"

She had been fairly certain that she was right in her assessment of them. The men below still needed her as much as they had needed her before. They wouldn't risk the only plan that they'd managed to come up with by risking a shot at her. It was just a bluff. Or that was what Romy had thought before a shot was fired in her direction that lodged itself in the bark of the tree's trunk behind her.

"What the fuck?" Romy screamed at them.

"We warned you," Rick said, sounding a little too pleased with himself for Romy's liking.

"So you're just gunna shoot at me? _Seriously_?" she questioned them incredulously.

"Isn't it bad enough what you did to dad?"

"It's survival, Romy. We're doing our best and you're our best option to-"

"_Survival?_ He was your _friend_!"

"Shut up!" Terry shouted.

"Don't you think we know that? It was an accident!"

"What's done is done anyway. And you should remember that we've already done it once- why would we hesitate to shoot you?" Rick yelled, shooting an annoyed glance in Terry's direction.

"Because you _need_ me," Romy bit back.

"Dead or alive, we can still use you," Seth chipped in.

Romy froze. _Did he... Did he _really_ just say that?_ she thought, her eyes widening. There was no way for her to get out of the tree she'd climbed into; the others were all too far apart here for her to use the branches to move between them. The only choices Romy had was to stay where she was as a sitting target, or climb down and let them use her for their plan. _So I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't then? _Fuck.

"Time's ticking, Romy," Seth said.

Her eyes flickered back down to the men at the base of the tree and she saw that they were all staring up at her. And in a moment of seeing their faces and expressions, Romy knew exactly what she was going to do.

"Fuck you all. There's no way I'd ever help you, so you're just going to have to shoot me," she said, realising that she'd much rather die than help her dad's murderers survive.

Romy had made her decision. She took a deep breath and waited for them to fire another shot at her, moulding herself as best she could to the branch she was perched on for protection. Her eyes scrunched shut as she clenched her teeth together in anticipation.

But the shot that she had expected didn't come. Romy was sure that she must have sat there for over five minutes before she dared to open her eyes again. _Did they leave or something?_ Romy wondered, slowly opening her eyes and sitting up from her slightly hidden position.

She immediately realised the move as a mistake as the gun shot sounded from below her. They'd been waiting for her to move into their line of fire, and she'd done _exactly_ that. She'd played into their plan and she just hadn't been quite quick enough. And their shot had met its mark.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: So as it turned out, I did <strong>_**not**_** have another chapter ready by the time I got back. So I apologise for that. :/ But I hope you guys like this even if it took me a horrendously long time to update it. :) And I'd like to say **_**wow**_**, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favourited and even just read this story! It really means a lot to me. :) If I had cake then I'd give you a piece... but I don't... :/ :P**

**Kit xx**


	4. No More Running

Romy had tried to dodge out of the way of the incoming shot- and it would have been a far worse wound had she not moved- but she hadn't escaped the bullet completely. And the sound she made as it hit her told the men at the base of the tree exactly that.

The pain was astounding. Unlike anything Romy had ever felt before. And she had only been shot in the arm. Romy lay back against the branch as she had done before so that she was once more out of their firing line. She gritted her teeth together and her sharp and heavy breaths came out in hisses through them.

It hurt more than she could fathom, and it took everything that Romy had not to scream out anymore than she already had. She closed her eyes and lay there, trying to forget the pain. Trying to think of anything else. Her attempts were pointless, however, and the fact that her eyes were closed only seemed to intensify the burning pain in her arm.

Eventually, Romy risked a glance at the wound in her arm. It looked just about as bad as it felt. She'd watched enough doctor programs on television to know that the wound was just a graze though. The bullet had skimmed against the skin of her arm and lodged itself into the trunk of the tree. _I suppose that's better than it could have been_, Romy thought through the agony as she tried to be optimistic.

"You dead?" Seth shouted from below.

If she could have concentrated properly, Romy would have sent him an angry scowl. _Like they weren't _trying_ to kill me anyway_.

"No I'm not dead, you _wanker!_ You _shot_ me!" she hissed through gritted teeth.

"You asked for it," Rick bit back.

"_Fuck_ _you!_"

She clapped her hand over the long gash in her right tricep, applying as much pressure to it as she could.

"Come down before we have to shoot you again, Romy," Andrew yelled.

"Oh, you really think that you're smart, don't you? You shot me in the _arm_, you _idiots_!"

"So?" Seth shouted up uncomprehendingly.

"_So_? How the _fuck_ do you think that I'm going to climb down now?"

There was a long pause in which none of the men at the base of the tree could answer her. They hadn't thought that far ahead obviously.

"You could jump?" Andrew put forward.

"From twenty five feet up? You've gotta be _kidding_ me," Romy seethed through her still-gritted teeth.

"You're this good with plans and you wonder why I'm _reluctant_ to be used as bait?" she added in a pained huff.

"If I climb up as high as I can, I might be able to help you down," Terry suggested after a while.

"_Right_, like I'm going to trust any of you to _help _me," Romy replied.

"What other choice do you have?"

_What other choice do I have? That phrase seems to be coming up rather a lot lately,_ Romy couldn't help but think. But as the pain in her arm started to intensify, Romy knew that she had to do something quickly before she ran the risk of passing out and getting out of the tree in the quickest way she could think of. By _falling_.

"Alright, fine," Romy answered finally.

"Just get your arse up here before I change my mind."

She didn't need to turn to check if Terry was indeed climbing the tree- she could hear him noisily making his way up to her. All Romy tried to do then was focus on keeping herself conscious; and trying to think of anything but the pain that was sending sharp reminders through her.

"Romy... I can't get up any higher," Terry tentatively said from a lot closer than she had expected him to be in so short a time.

Romy winced as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. She opened her eyes and looked down at where Terry was holding tight to the trunk of the tree. He was closer than she'd expected, but he was still a good five feet below her. _Fuck_, she thought.

"You're going to have to climb down," he continued.

"No shit," she bit back with a frown.

_Fuck, this going to hurt,_ Romy thought blankly taking her hand from her arm and wiping away the blood there onto her already-bloodstained shirt. _This is such a bad idea_, she thought as she pulled herself around to test the grip of her right arm._ Fuck, fuck, fuck._

Romy winced at the feel of the weight her arm took hold of as it sent pangs of unrelenting pain through her. But it wasn't enough to make her let go of the tree. Gritting her teeth once more, Romy manoeuvred herself from the branch she was resting on and started her descent to where Terry waited.

Even though she was careful to keep as much of her weight as possible from her right arm, climbing down those five feet was agony. The task that should have been so simple for her- that _would_ have been so simple for her- hurt like Hell. As quickly as she'd made her way to Terry, Romy was sure it had still taken _too_ long. She groaned as Terry caught her with one arm and helped her onto the branch he stood on.

"Ouch, that doesn't look too nice," he said as he caught sight of where the bullet had grazed her.

"I still look a hell of a lot better than most of you," she retorted.

"I'm not so sure of that, you know. You're as pale as a ghost."

"Well you did try and fucking shoot me."

"_I_ didn't," Terry corrected, as if that was supposed to make some sort of difference to her.

She rolled her eyes and signalled for him to start climbing down. Romy had no idea, at this point, if Terry was more hindrance or help to her. He was getting her out of the tree and helping her when she needed it; but the way he held her to stop her from falling made it harder for her to use her left arm and she continually had to put strain on her right.

When they reached the ground, Terry sat her down with her back leaning against the trunk of the tree. Romy closed her eyes and let her head drop slightly as she took a few deep breaths. _So I didn't die falling out of a tree_, Romy thought. _But I did just hand myself over to dad's murderers. Shit._

A lump came to her throat as she bit back the urge to say anything. She knew that she had more of a chance now that she'd lulled them into thinking that she'd go along with their plan- into thinking that she'd help them.

Through strands of her dark hair that had fallen in front of her face, Romy could see exactly where the four men stood. And she could see that none of them were in touching distance. _Which means if I run_, Romy started, not taking into consideration that she probably shouldn't run while she felt like she could pass out or throw up at any second.

_Take the chance or you'll regret it_, she told herself. And she had pushed herself to her feet and started running before the men had seen her intent. This time though, Romy was _not_ quick enough to outrun her pursuers. She'd barely made it a metre before she felt the crushing weight of one of their bodies crashing on top of her.

Romy cried out as whoever was on top of her used their body to pin her to the ground and definitely wasn't trying to be careful about how they handled her. The side of her face pressed into the dirt slightly as, she would swear, the man on top of her sat on her back to keep her still.

Slowly, she felt the weight ease off from her and let out a momentary sigh. _At least I can breathe again_, she thought, just before her breath caught in her throat. Two strong hands took a hold of her arms and yanked her backward so that she had to stand up or they'd dislocate her shoulders.

Whoever had hold of her right arm was purposefully gripping his hand painfully over Romy's wound. Which meant that whoever had hold of her right arm was about to receive a very hard kick to his _private area_ if he didn't let go soon. Romy looked to her right and saw Rick. _He deserves this more than any of them_, she thought as she turned slightly and brought her knee up into Rick's crotch.

Regardless of the pain it had caused her when he'd initially squeezed her arm, Romy's action had made Rick let go of her. And, even though Andrew, who as it turned out was on her other side, took hold of her wrist and wrenched it backward, Romy still couldn't keep her smirk from her face. Rick crumbled to the ground, his hands clutching at the area where Romy's knee had met its mark.

Romy would have continued to struggle; she would have tried something like that with Andrew now that he alone was holding her. But Romy didn't get the chance before Seth's fist hit her stomach. She couldn't even fold over herself to protect herself as his fist connected there twice more.

She couldn't hold back her cry of pain as she hung her head slightly. Her knees were almost too weak to keep her standing. But, as she eventually regained some of her strength, Romy looked up at the men, only to find that she was staring right into the muzzle of Seth's gun. _Shit. At this close range, even Seth can't miss_, Romy thought almost helplessly. He didn't shoot though, for which she was thankful for. And Seth lowered his gun eventually after giving Romy an awful jeering smile.

Romy felt sick. She felt like she was going to pass out. But she couldn't. Romy knew that she had to stay awake to stay aware. She wouldn't let them set up their plan and leave her unconscious whilst they stood in safety, waiting for the huge humanoid alien to come after her- if he even would. So she tried to concentrate on the men around her that she now couldn't believe she and her dad had ever called friends.

"Now Romy, we should be civilised about this-" Andrew said from behind her.

"What's that? _Civilised_? Starting _after_ you shot me, then?"

"Little bitch," Rick put in, finally getting back to his feet.

Romy was still quite pleased that the pain _he_ was feeling at her hand- or, rather, _knee_- was still written all over his face.

"You deserved that," Romy bit back.

"Yeah, well maybe you deserve a whole lot more than you think you're gunna get. Keep pushing me and I'll make sure that you'll find out what that is," Rick growled at her.

And, although Romy still hated the man, she found herself glad when Terry intervened. Though she'd never admit it to anyone, and she'd never let it show, the look in Rick's eyes as he'd threatened her had actually sent a chill though her.

"Back off, Rick."

"She kicked me in the _balls_!" Rick replied, as if that justified whatever he thought he was going to do to Romy.

"I'd do it again; _anytime_," Romy retorted, her voice full of false bravado.

Before Rick could say anything to her, Terry placed a hand in warning on his shoulder.

The two men clapped eyes on each other as Terry reasoned, "We've all been there. Hurts like hell. But we still need her, remember?"

"Whatever," Rick grunted, angrily turning his back on Romy.

That may have been his reply, but Romy got the distinct impression that Rick felt that there was unfinished business between them. She just hoped that he'd never get to finish that business with whatever he had planned.

"Okay, so, now we've got your cooperation Romy, we can put this plan into action," Seth started.

"We should probably wait until tomorrow; it's getting too dark now," Terry interrupted.

"You're right," Andrew agreed.

"Alright," Seth said, slightly irritated.

"So, what? We set up camp again?" Terry said.

The others nodded.

"Here seems good enough," Seth said as he looked around.

"Someone go and get some wood for a fire," he added.

_Idiots. They're just _asking_ for some big beastie thing to come and eat us_, Romy thought, annoyed at their stupidity.

"You realise that a fire will only _attract_ creatures, don't you?" she pointed out.

"Shut up, bitch," Rick snapped at her.

Romy rolled her eyes at him but gave no response. _Let them get us killed_, she thought with a sigh.

* * *

><p>Sh'osha watched them by the small fire that they'd created. Regardless of their situation, they should have known that a fire was a bad idea. Even if <em>he<em> hadn't been hunting them- a fact that he knew that they were well aware of- other creatures would be drawn to the light and warmth that beaconed their position.

The female had made the same observation, but had been ignored; once more proving to Sh'osha that she was more capable than any of the males. He watched her from where she sat, carefully watched by the others.

Sh'osha had already come to a decision regarding the males. That they had shot one of their own in the form of the female's father had been one thing; but Sh'osha had soon realised that there was no honour in these males. They'd shot the female, unarmed as she was, without her even posing a threat to them. The memory caused him to bristle- as did the fact that they had beaten her without just cause also.

Whatever the case, these males were dishonourable and had to die. And Sh'osha would kill them. It irritated him to think that they were not even worth hunting. The only thing about this whole hunt that had proved to be of any worth was the female.

Sh'osha would begin anew with a fresh set of males- ones that were not so dishonourable. All that had to be done before then was for Sh'osha to dispose of these males. What he did with the female depended on her actions when he made his move.

If she tried to help the males, or join with them, then he would kill her. If she did not... That would be a matter for later.

* * *

><p>Romy's captors had been keeping close tabs on her. She couldn't believe how they'd bound her wrists and ankles with spare shoelaces; it was just plain embarrassing, but they had done it anyway. And as she sat with them around the fire, Romy knew that she wasn't going to find a way to escape any time soon; and, even if she did, she wasn't sure if she'd have the strength to go through with it. The pain in her arm had steadily become sharper as the night wore on, but she'd said nothing of it.<p>

The men all threw watchful glances at her to make sure that she wasn't trying to run from them again. She wasn't. But that still didn't stop them from being overly cautious. It was probably a good idea too, because, Romy would admit- perhaps not to _them_- that she would have run given the opportunity.

"Does it hurt?" Terry asked, gesturing at the graze on her arm.

Romy made a mental note to better hide the wince from her expression as she looked down at the wound. _Stupid bastards didn't even let me wrap it_, she thought, hoping that that wouldn't be the reason for her getting some infection. _If I even live long enough to _get_ an infection that is..._

"Of course, it fucking hurts," she retorted without looking at Terry.

"Shouldn't have asked for it then, should you?" Rick countered from the other side of the fire.

"Believe me, I won't be getting into a habit of getting shot at- _oh, wait a second_, you're about to send me out to either get shot at by some big motherfucking alien or by one of you again when you miss and accidentally shoot me," she bit back, sarcasm heavy in her tone.

With a harsh glare, Rick answered, "Keep talking like that and it won't be an accident."

Romy rolled her eyes and ignored him. Rick clearly hadn't gotten over the fact that she'd kicked him. In her opinion though, Romy had every right to have done that. She had every right to hate and want him dead. Rick had been the one directly responsible for her dad's death and he deserved every pain that she could give him.

It hadn't been long after that though that the group of men had decided to try sleeping. A glimmer of hope flickered through Romy at the thought that she might be able to free herself while they slept, but it was quickly quelled. It appeared that these men were smarter, at least this time, than she gave them credit for.

They organised a watch system in which one of the four men stayed awake to keep an eye on her at all times. _Damn_, Romy thought as she heard Andrew articulate that plan. Seth was first, and he said that he'd wake Andrew in a couple of hours.

As the men moved away to find positions to sleep in, they set out their previously-rolled-up sleeping bags that they'd managed to hold onto to keep them safe. Romy, it seemed, was just going to have to brave it in the open. She didn't mind too much though- it wasn't cold enough for her to miss having a sleeping bag.

After a few choice arguments with Seth that allowed none of the men to sleep, Rick got more than annoyed. It was him that made the decision to cut a long strip from one of the legs of her shorts and use it as a makeshift gag. And, although Romy struggled against him tying it around her mouth so that she couldn't speak anymore, her efforts were in vain. And the night got a lot quieter after that.

At first, Romy tried to stay awake. She tried to keep her eyes open in an attempt to pick at a weak spot in Seth's watch. She found nothing though; nothing that left a big enough gap that she could use it when she was tired and bound. So Romy eventually found herself lying down on her left side, letting sleep close her eyes and wash away the pain of the day.

* * *

><p>Romy woke up with a start. It wasn't because of a noise, or because of something touching her; Romy just had a weird feeling. Though it was dark, and clearly the middle of the night, the fire at the centre of their so-called camp still flickered brightly.<p>

And, in that light, Romy could clearly see Rick standing over her and looking down on her as she slept. It made her flinch back slightly as she noticed him standing a little too close to her for her liking, the expression on his face less than pleasant.

Romy couldn't stop the threat he'd made to her earlier coming to mind as she rolled away from him and sat up. _"Maybe you deserve a whole lot more than you think you're gunna get. Keep pushing me and I'll make sure that you'll find out what that is."_

"Not gunna try and run away again, are you, Romy?" Rick said in a falsely sing-song-like whisper.

Romy frowned at him, glaring his way as she slowly shook her head.

"Shame," he said with a sigh as he took a step closer to her.

The step in her direction made Romy increasingly uncomfortable. Because the step in her direction had set off warning bells in Romy's mind that told her that she'd just found herself in a _very_ bad situation. Rick was obviously still pissed at her and the other men had just left him alone with her while they took a nap.

Rick stopped when he was right in front of her and he bent into a crouch so that he was just above eye-level. That same harsh and menacing look lit his eyes as he held hers. _Fan-fucking-tastic_, Romy thought as she resisted the urge to roll away from him again. She knew that in this position, she had to hold her ground or she'd have nothing.

"Because, you see, if you _did_ try and escape, then I'd get to stop you," he continued, his voice still no more than a whisper.

"And I could tell them that everything I did was to stop you running away."

Romy couldn't help but pale as he said that, his thumb coming up to lift her chin slightly. He could feel the tension in her from that one little touch and it only made him flash a smirk at her. _What the fuck is he going to do?_ Romy couldn't help but wonder. She kept his gaze, however, and set her jaw into a locked position, no matter how hard it was with the gag that Rick had put on her.

"Of course," Rick started, leaving a pause for what he meant to create dramatic effect.

"I could just tell them that you tired to run anyway."

The words barely had time to register before one hand moved to her shoulder to steady her and keep her from moving backward, whilst the other formed a fist and buried itself in her stomach. Romy cried out, the sound muffled and quiet into the material around her mouth.

"They're not going to hear or help you," Rick whispered menacingly into her ear.

His fist stuck again, once more in her stomach and then once to her side. But his other hand held Romy still, barring her from any escape that she might try to make from him. The blows had hurt more than Romy could express, as they touched the already-forming bruises of Seth's efforts earlier that day.

Rick hit out at her again, this time striking her chest. That, more so than the others, seemed to knock the air from her lungs, winding her as she tried to push against him with her bound hands. Romy couldn't stop small tears leaking out of her eyes.

"Oh, you're fighting back now?" Rick said, enjoyment obvious even in his hushed voice.

"Well clearly, I need to work a bit harder."

Before Romy could make another move or regain any type of sense to even _try_ to make another move, Rick was standing. She felt his foot collide with her stomach only moments before her face collided with the ground. Rick kicked her once more in the back as she lay there, and Romy's body instinctively arched against it.

She'd never been beaten up before; she'd never even been in a proper fight before either, and with what this felt like, Romy was glad of it. She wanted to die. Pain and a throbbing ache washed over her entire body as she didn't even try to move. Moving would only result in more pain and she knew it. Romy just tried to catch her breath and ignore that pain flaring though her.

"Not giving up, are you, Rom, huh? You wouldn't do that now, would you?" he taunted, crouching back down beside her.

The comment incensed her temper, as Rick had known it would. And regardless of the pain and the fact that she still couldn't breathe properly, Romy swung her still-bound hands Rick's way and hoped that they would meet their mark. They did, but her punch did little but knock Rick back a little.

Her attempt had been feeble, but all that she could manage in her current situation. And Rick easily overpowered her once more, another blow glancing against the corner of her jaw. The dimly lit world started to fuzz and dizzy as Romy struggled to keep her focus.

And all the while that she was trying to determine which Rick of the four she could see was the real one, Rick had pinned her down, straddling her to keep her from shifting. He held her bound hands in one of his own, and for the first time, Romy felt a genuinely panic-stricken wave of fear.

From this position, it wasn't hard for Romy to imagine what would happen next, especially not with the way that Rick was staring at her. And she felt sick, more so than she had even when she'd been shot. Even when she'd been beaten. _Why is no one waking up? Romy thought desperately._

"You're not gunna try and get away anymore now, are you, Rom?"

She didn't move to respond and Rick squeezed painfully on her wrists until she shook her head, more tears squeezing from her eyes.

"Good, 'cus I think it's about time I taught you a lesson. And we've got a good couple of hours before the end of my watch to make sure that you learn it well."

Romy froze. It took her only a second to realise what he meant and, as soon as she had, Romy started squirming; trying desperately to free herself from his grip. Rick's position on top of her made it impossible for her to escape though, and he only smirked and held her down as she tried.

His free hand slid down her side until it reached the button of her shorts. Undoing it, he moved to pull down the zip. All Romy could do was cry and continue to struggle as best as she could though it made no difference. In the deepest parts of her mind, Romy couldn't help but wonder how she'd let this happen.

She'd already discovered that there were a few murderers living in her town. And now there was a rapist to add to that. Who knew? Wouldn't the folks at home be surprised if they ever found out? And now she was going to pay for what she hadn't seen coming from the man who'd murdered her dad.

Something then, that Romy had not expected- or even dared to hope for- happened. She felt Rick's weight lift its pressing hold on her in a second as he rolled off to the right. In actual fact, it turned out that Rick had been _pushed_ off of Romy. As soon as she could though, Romy sat up and backed herself frantically away from Rick.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Terry yelled at Rick, stepping between him and Romy.

Relief ran through her as Romy saw Terry. Whatever the man had done in the past, Romy was just glad that he'd woken up. That he'd stopped Rick before he could do anything else. Romy quickly pulled her shorts up and secured them properly again. Rick pushed himself to his feet and wiped the dirt from his trousers.

He shot a harsh glance at the man as he answered, "Teaching this bitch a lesson."

"What the fuck?"

"She kicked me in the balls. The bitch needed to learn some respect," Rick growled as if that was all the reason he needed for his actions.

He took a few angry steps closer to Terry in an attempt to intimidate the man.

Terry shoved Rick away from him and said, "So just thought you'd beat her and then what?"

He paused and added, "Would you have done it, Rick? _Would_ you?"

A few noises came signalling that the remaining men had started to rouse- the shouts of Rick and Terry too loud to ignore. Now_ they wake up_, Romy thought, annoyance flashing through her.

Rick's expression was set as he answered, "She needed to learn some respect."

Terry scowled as he replied, "You're _sick_. That's _George's_ daughter. You _know_ her."

"I don't give a fuck. She kicked me in the _balls_. And anyway, in case it had escaped your notice, I _killed_ George. His precious little daughter'll be dead by tomorrow anyway, what difference would it've made anyway?"

"You _sick_ motherfucker."

"What's going on?" Andrew asked, confusion creasing his brows as he got to his feet.

"The bitch tried to run so I was teaching her a lesson," Rick said, trying to cover up for his actions.

"I caught him trying to fucking _rape_ her," Terry said, disgustedly.

Both Andrew and Seth's eyes turned to Romy, who showed the obvious effects of what Rick had done from the dirt covering her body, to the already forming bruises and the tear stains on her face.

"Look, we've done a lot of _low_ things since we've been here, but there's no way I was letting that happen."

"Relax, I was just teaching her a lesson-"

"You call beating her, straddling her and trying to take her clothes off as teaching her a lesson?" Terry countered.

"Did you really do that?" Andrew asked, doubt flickering over his features.

Rick didn't reply. It turned out he didn't have to though, as Seth answered for him.

"We've all had a hard time here. Maybe he was just trying to blow off a little steam," he said.

"You little fuck, there's perfectly good ways to blow off steam- and rape just is not fucking one of them."

Rick took another step toward him, but Terry was quick enough to reach down beside him and grab his gun. Terry hefted it and pointed it at Rick before he could make another move. But before anyone could even open their mouth to speak, the little camp was thrown into chaos.

Terry jolted backward in a movement too quick for a human man; and no one realised how that was possible until he slumped back into the tree he'd thudded against. He was pinned there, his feet about a foot from the ground, by what appeared to be a huge, metallic-looking spear that protruded from his chest and had seemingly embedded itself in the tree behind.

The moments that followed were hectic and confused; but everyone knew that they were being attacked. And it didn't take many guesses to figure out what was doing it. Each of the men rushed to pick up their weapons and Romy was all but forgotten. Apparently, so was Terry, as the group made no comment or shout at the death of another from their used-to-be group of friends.

As they started blindly shooting around at the trees shrouded in darkness, Romy crawled over to Terry's backpack where she knew that he always kept a hunting knife. And, sure enough, after a little rummaging, Romy found the four inch, fixed blade hunting knife that she had been looking for.

Quickly unsheathing the blade, Romy had cut through the shoelaces binding her hands feet before what she saw made her freeze. The giant humanoid alien, the one covered in metallic armour and weapons, had appeared in front of Andrew in the same manner as he had in front of her; as if from thin air.

The two serrated blades that Romy remembered so well as the ones the creature had used to save her life made her flinch as they made a reappearance. They extended right into Andrew's chest. The man screamed and dropped his gun in an attempt to claw at the blades cutting so deep into his chest that more than their tips could be seen protruding from his back.

Snapping back into action as both Rick and Seth turned on the massive humanoid creature, Romy cut away the part of her shorts that had been used to gag her. She could have run. She could have tried to make an escape from both the two people she despised and the alien that looked as if he could kill her with a flick of his wrist. The one that was far quicker than those shooting at him.

She could have run. But Romy had had enough of running. And if it came down now to picking a side; then the choice was an easy one for her. Between helping two men that had murdered her dad, beaten, shot and tried to rape her; the giant-like creature that was hunting them seemed _by far_ the better option. _Besides, I _owe_ him. _Romy thought, her decision made. _Even if he does kill me after anyway_.

Seth had unwittingly moved around the outside of the fire in an attempt to avoid the creature he was shooting at. He had unwittingly made his way right over to where Romy stood, seemingly aimlessly, and clutching Terry's knife. Not knowing her intentions or the decision she'd made, Seth stepped far too close to Romy.

With only a moment of hesitation, hidden in a deep breath, Romy moved forward and dug the knife into Seth's back. Not once, or even twice; but three times. _How's that for _survival_? _she thought angrily, not really connecting with the fact that she'd _actually _just killed someone.

It took a moment in the silence that followed Seth dropping to the ground, for the realisation to sink in. She'd just killed Seth. He'd not bother anyone ever again. He'd never get to come up with another ridiculous plan that resulted in anyone else's dad's dying again. He'd never do _anything_ again. And she was responsible for that.

The thing that struck her, however, was that it just didn't bother her as much as she'd thought it should. Romy had heard the saying, "_Revenge is sweet_"; she just didn't quite expect that she was the type of person to feel _that_. But she did.

Romy hadn't noticed that the firing had stopped, even though she could only hear the silence around her. And she didn't know where either of the monsters still alive were.

All that she was dimly aware of was that Seth's body lay at her feet, crumpled and leaking blood from the three deep wounds she'd created. Romy could still feel the knife in her firm grip and she looked down to see that same red and viscous liquid dripping from its steel blade.

It only took a moment to snap Romy out of her haze. But the moment that did was one that Romy was most definitely not expecting. The knife that she had been so diligently staring at was moved to press against her throat, a hand gripping around hers and holding it still so that she could no more let go than she could force the knife away.

The movement caused Romy to draw in a sharp breath and hold it as the knife pressed just that bit harder against her skin. As another hand gripped a hold on her shoulder, Romy realised too late what was happening.

Rick was going to try and use her as a shield against the creature- who, at that point in time, was standing there watching the two humans carefully. He moved over to Terry's body and retrieved the metal spear, making both of them jump when it retracted slightly and Terry's body thudded to the ground. But, in an instant, he had vanished again, disappearing into whatever type of camouflage or invisibility that he had at his disposal.

"Rick, let go-"

"Shut up, Romy!" he yelled her ear.

"Stop it- _please_," Romy tried again.

"I said, _SHUT UP!_" Rick repeated angrily.

Romy couldn't see it, but Rick's eyes were darting everywhere in an attempt to catch sight of their hunter. She could feel his desperate panic in his actions though, in the way the he moved and rotated her, keeping her always in front of him.

Romy wouldn't have minded seeing him so cornered and terrified as he now was, the only problem she had with it was that she was just a little too close to the knife on the end of a panic-shaken hand to be calm about it. In all honesty, Romy was almost to the point, for what seemed like the nth time since she'd been on this planet, of freaking the _fuck_ out.

Everything always seemed to happen so quickly when the massive alien was involved though, Romy would later note. One second, Rick was holding her in that position with the knife pressed almost too-harshly into the skin of her throat. And another, Romy was standing two feet away and staring at the giant and Rick... and Rick's arm as it lay on the floor, still holding the knife.

Romy didn't know how it had happened; all she had heard was Rick's bloodcurdling and unmanly scream as she was pushed forward. And she'd turned back only to see that the huge creature had saved her once again. Romy couldn't help but stare as the giant picked Rick up and threw the bleeding and semi-conscious man over his shoulder.

That was when he'd turned his attentions to her, and Romy had gone as still as she possibly could have. Even behind that same emotionless mask, Romy could tell that he was staring at her. His head tilted to the side slightly and Romy found herself wondering what that was supposed to mean.

She wasn't expecting his huge and strong hand to come up and wrap around her forearm in an encompassing, and surprisingly hot, grip. Romy didn't try to resist or flinch as he tugged her along behind him- not that she really could have resisted against the pull of his hand.

She was merely thankful that she wasn't dead yet. _Then again_, she thought with a pang of worry for her safety._ Rick's not dead and look at him..._

_Maybe I should have run..._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I think I just got bitchslapped by karma... Serves me right for having Romy shot in the arm and then waking up the next morning with a right arm that has been <strong>_**killing**_** me all day... I kinda hope karma's had enough for now 'cus I don't fancy much of **_**this**_** stuff coming around to smack me in the face...**

_**Anywayyyyyyy**_**... :P At least my update was much quicker this time. I think I kind of owed you guys seeing as I left you for so long last time. :)**

**I'd love to know what you think, so please do let me know if you get the chance! :)**

**Kit xx**


	5. New Problems Altogether

Romy was confused. Strike that, she was more than confused; she had absolutely _no_ idea what was going on and she was absolutely fucking _terrified_. Whatever the creature was that had a hold of her arm, it was relentless. And it wasn't slowing down just because one of his strides equalled about three of hers.

She tried to keep up, but it was hard. The humanoid alien was virtually yanking her along behind him, and she knew that she'd find no way to get him to release her. His grip was astoundingly strong and permanent, she noticed, as it cuffed most of her forearm.

It was odd though, because his skin felt almost... not like skin at all. It wasn't the same as hers; there was almost something reptilian about it. There were no scales as such, but his palm felt more leathery. It could have been impenetrable for all that Romy knew, and it was no surprise to her now that he hadn't been concerned by their guns.

As they passed by tree after tree, Romy was surprised that no branches whipped against her face as she half-ran behind the giant. But he moved so expertly and gracefully through the wild foliage that the only time she brushed against something was by a misstep of her own.

Romy had no idea where he was taking her. And she wasn't sure if the not knowing was better or worse; because, after all, did she really want to know what this alien had planned for her? And what he had planned for Rick?

Not that Romy cared about the man, but, as she cast a sidelong glance at him she could instantly tell how pale he was. The stump where his arm had been was still bleeding, leaking a trail of the viscous, red liquid behind them. But Romy figured that whatever creature that dared to follow _that_ trail would end up with a face full of alien beating- and probably _worse_.

* * *

><p>As Sh'osha led the way back to the camp he'd been using whilst hunting- not that he'd spent almost any time there since the Hunt had begun- his mind mulled over what he had just witnessed.<p>

The way the males had treated one of their own, a female of their kind _especially_, had incensed him. He had been right about them, as he had already had confirmed for him many a time. But what he saw had been enough to make him pause, his anger building.

It was true that mating between yautja was definitely not something that was affectionate; however, it _did_ require the male to prove himself to the female before anything further took place. Oomans were different. Even so though, the way that oomans mated was not the way that the male now hanging over Sh'osha's shoulder had tried to with the female.

The male had totally disregarded and dominated a bound female and had beaten her without cause. Yautja females were bigger than their male counterparts; stronger in some cases. If a male had tried to do the same with a yautja female, he would quickly have found himself without a body part vital for continuing with the act. Yautja females had the power to discourage unwanted attentions, where the ooman female had not. And Sh'osha had been able to see the fear in her from where he was crouched, watching her heartbeat thrum quickly.

When Sh'osha had spent some time hunting oomans on their own planet, in their natural habitat, he had witnessed occasions where males had tried to engage a female in forced copulation, much in the same way as the one over his shoulder had. It had angered him then just as it had this night, and he had intervened. _Always_.

It was not how it was supposed to be done- and the intervention of the heavier-set male had proven that. If he had not made a move, then Sh'osha would have- before one of the males even had a chance to pick up their weapons.

As soon as one of them _had_ though, Sh'osha took off, the pause, so unlike him, quickly in the past. He was more than eager to end this Hunt; a feeling that never usually arose concerning the Hunt. These opponents were unworthy though, and the sooner that they were dead the better.

In all of the plans that he'd made though, bringing the female back with him had not been a part of any of them. He had intended to leave her unless she tried anything against him, unless she raised a weapon to him. Then he would have killed her. But the female hadn't raised her weapon against him- but against one of the males that had been about to try shooting at him.

The female had taken the life of one of her own in thinking that she could stop a shot aimed in Sh'osha's direction. It was a shock that had stunned Sh'osha into making the decision that he had. Into bringing the female back to his camp. _Why_ she had done as she had, he could only guess. It was that she _had_ done it that had been the discerning factor in the choice Sh'osha had made.

A small noise from behind him made Sh'osha pause. He stopped and turned around to see the female looking up at him, her eyes wide.

Romy froze. The noise she had made had been involuntary and a result of a slightly shorter step that left her far enough behind for Sh'osha's pull on her arm to yank just that little too hard. All that she could see was that expressionless metal mask, not even the eyes that she knew were staring at her from behind it.

It was almost daunting to stare at the creature and have no idea at all what he was thinking. For all that Romy knew, he could just have changed his mind and instead decided to kill her. She hoped that it wasn't the case, but there was no way that she could tell for sure.

Until the hand on her arm released her from his inescapable hold and she could breathe a small sigh of relief. That relief only proved to be short-lived, however, because Sh'osha's hand closed around her side instead. Romy flinched and tried to back away, but one sharp growl-like noise from Sh'osha had her freeze once more.

He could see her heart rate increase because of his simple movement, so he held himself still. Sh'osha did not mean to alarm her, or even _harm_ her for the moment, though he understood why his touch would do such a thing. With that one hand, he could destroy her should he wish it. She _must_ have been able to feel the power in his grip as he held her restrained.

But it was merely impractical to continue as they had been. The female was slowing him down, and they had only a limited amount of time before the male on his shoulder bled out. And he wanted the male to be _alive_ for what he had planned.

So his arm swept around the female's tiny waist and, in a movement that seemed to take no effort, Sh'osha had Romy dangling over the opposite shoulder to Rick. He heard her make a small sound of protest as her feet left the ground, and he heard the sound repeated even more when the armour on his shoulder dug into the sensitive and already bruising skin of her upper torso.

He held them both with so little effort, she felt like he could snap her in half with such ease. It was _scary_. _He's going to hurt you_, Romy thought to herself, finally reaching the moment of panic. _Correction, he's going to_ kill _you_, she thought as he let out another threatening growl when she tried again to adjust herself in his grasp. Romy stopped moving, immediately sensing the deadly warning in that growl.

And, satisfied that she'd understood him, Sh'osha began moving through the trees again. Only this time, he moved quickly. _Far_ more quickly than Romy could ever have kept up with.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at the trees they past; everything was moving so quickly that she couldn't properly focus on anything. Blurry landscape flashed by her so rapidly that Romy had to rest her head on the giant's back and tightly close her eyes just to stop herself from being sick. She groaned slightly and told herself to just wait out this journey for whatever unknown future was to come when they stopped.

* * *

><p>By the time that Sh'osha finally <em>did<em> stop, light had started to trickle through the trees as day broke. It made no difference to Romy though. She still felt sick. What was worse was that she'd already convinced herself that she was going to die; that the creature holding her was going to kill her.

And, seeing only a few of the weapons that he possessed, Romy's mind was full of the numerous ways in which she knew he could do it. But the thoughts that even overshadowed _those_ were of the ways that he could possibly kill her that she couldn't even fathom.

Sh'osha set the female down on the ground and watched as she slipped to her knees for a moment. He chuffed as she regained her composure and he finally moved away from her.

Romy stood, her legs almost too weak to support herself properly. She could see that the humanoid alien was watching her; but as soon as her eyes dared turn to his expressionless metal mask, he turned away. He was totally _unconcerned_ by Romy and instead turned to focus on the bleeding man that had murdered her dad.

Her eyes followed the huge creature as he moved away. Unaware of what she should do, Romy almost considered running. She soon thought better of it though; she'd just borne witness as to how fast the creature could run. And if he had taken the trouble to bring her all this way, she had _no_ doubt that he could stop her before she made it five steps away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sh'osha was watching the female as she struggled through some inner conflict. He could see her thought exactly in her body language; in the way that she unconsciously turned away from him. In the way that her eyes darted to the trees around the camp.

She didn't run though; it would have been foolish of her to do so. Sh'osha would simply have hunted her down; and, while at the moment he had chosen that she should remain alive, her running might have changed that.

As he dropped the male roughly to the ground beside the unlit fire, Sh'osha looked over him. The male had lost a lot of blood; he was barely still alive. But he _was_ alive and that was what mattered.

As time was of a necessity, Sh'osha used his sivk'va-tai to fire a short burst of energy, igniting a fire that he would soon put to use. Romy watched as those three little red dots that signalled a target, pointed toward a pit and set the thing alight with a sharp, jolting blast from the gun-like thing on his shoulder.

Romy couldn't stop herself from flinching slightly as the flames erupted. But he didn't even seem to be paying attention to the gun or the flames, she noticed, as his attention was now focussed on Rick once more.

For a moment, Romy wasn't even sure what the huge creature- the thing that had effectively saved her from the men that she formerly called friends- was doing to the man, because his giant body obscured the comparatively smaller man from view.

But when he had shifted, Romy could see exactly what he had done. And she had no idea what to think of it. The giant alien had tied Rick by his feet and... hand to a long stick. And the image that Romy couldn't help but recall was of a hog roast.

A small part of her, speaking from the tiniest corner of her mind, had a nagging feeling about what would happen next. The rest of her overpowered that tiny voice, however. Rick was going to get exactly what he deserved, of _that_, she was certain.

She watched as the alien picked the pole-like stick and Rick up in another seemingly effortless movement. Romy gulped as she wondered just how strong this creature actually was. Her attention was quickly drawn back to Rick, who after being hefted up in such an uncomfortable position, cried out in his state of semi-consciousness, blood still oozing slowly from his wound.

Between nonsensical mumbles, Romy distinctly heard the man say, "What the fuck are you doing?"

The giant gave no response to his words; almost as if he hadn't heard them at all. Sh'osha _had_ heard the man's words, of course, not that they made any sort of difference. He simply growled once and shifted the pole so that Rick hung directly over the fire. The screams were instantaneous and Romy froze, her mouth hanging slightly agape.

_He's really doing it... _Roasting_ him... Like a pig..._ Romy thought, her eyes wide. Rick's anguished cries echoed through the small clearing in which the camp was situated, filling the air with his pain.

Half of his body hung down on the side that had no arm to hold him up, and that only served to his disadvantage. The flames licked at his skin; his position offering up his face to their torturous tongues. Romy averted her eyes then; she couldn't watch it. She couldn't watch him slowly burn to death- no matter what an arsehole the man was.

Yet each time that Romy tried to look away, she found that her eyes were only drawn back to the horrific sight at the centre on the camp. Drawn back to the man screaming with all that he had left for all the time that he had left. Unfortunately for her, Romy had turned back in time to see Rick's eyes turn white, blindness setting in as a result of the fire he dangled over.

It was horrible to see, and Romy didn't fail to notice that the alien was staring at him intently as the man's skin turned black and his screams quickly started to fade. What she didn't know was that all he really was watching were the two heat signatures becoming one. The flames flicking as the dying man thrashed around, still desperately trying to free himself.

But suddenly the screaming died down. If the pain and the flames hadn't been enough to stop Rick from shouting out, then it had been the smoke that had knocked him unconscious. Either way, silence and the mere crackle of the fire could be heard in the gap that had once been filled with dying cries; the smell of burnt and still-burning flesh its lingering companion.

Romy's nose crinkled at the enduring scent. She couldn't even force herself to feel a _little_ sad at Rick's death. Disturbed at the manner in which it had happened; perhaps a little. But Rick got what he deserved. He was a murderer, and an almost-rapist. He and Seth had been the ones that had caused all the trouble in the first place.

Without them, there would have been no plan to use her to tempt the alien; her dad wouldn't be dead, she wouldn't have been shot, beaten and almost raped. _Yes_, she thought. _Rick did get what he deserved; and so did Seth._

But she had an entirely new problem altogether to deal with now that they were gone. She was standing, alone, just feet away from an alien that Seth and the others had all been so sure wanted her. She had no idea what was going to happen to her, whether it would kill her, or... She didn't know how to finish that sentence, but what Romy _did_ know, was that he was looking at her again, his body held rigid and still.

All Romy could do was stare at him though. Until she suddenly felt the need to avert her eyes, as if not doing so might cause something that she didn't want to happen. And in the short moment that it took her to turn her eyes from him, Sh'osha had closed the gap between them.

She gasped at the sudden proximity of the intimidating creature, looming over her; but made no other move. Romy was frozen and, once again, found herself staring at the huge alien. Only, he was so close now that when she stared directly in front of her, all that she saw was his huge, muscled chest.

In a movement, once more, too quick for Romy to follow, Sh'osha's hand wrapped around the back of her neck. Romy froze- if it was even possible for her to move less- her eyes flashing to his other hand and warily catching sight of the sharp talons there. _This is it. You're going to die_, she told herself, finding that she was panicking once more. _He's going to kill you._

Sensing the female's fear, Sh'osha did what came naturally to him. He sent out a purr in order to sooth her, as he had done with females of his own kind many times over. He did not mean to harm her, and he would not have her thinking that that was his intention.

The moment that the sound reached her ears Romy didn't know what to think. She was scared; really and truly frightened in the grasp of a creature that she was sure could snap her neck with a twitch of his hand. But when she heard that sound, she felt odd; as if the purr was comforting her slightly. Subtly relaxing her doubts and fears.

Romy took in a deep breath while she tried to understand what was happening; what he was doing to her. She didn't even feel as scared as she knew she should when the hand clasping her neck pushed her forward. _What the Hell is going on?_ she thought vaguely as she fought against what he was doing to her with the sound that she inadvertently found wonderful.

But she found that she couldn't honestly fight that hard; no matter how huge and strong the creature leading her was- and no matter that it wouldn't have done much to help her anyway. The sound that he was making, it was just doing _things_ to her that calmed her in a way that she had never felt. In a way that she'd certainly not felt since arriving on this planet.

Sh'osha moved the female and seated her on one of the large rocks that he'd purposefully placed around the fire. Abruptly, he cut short the purr that had so relaxed her and calmed her heartbeat dramatically as he had known it would. It seemed to take a moment for the female to blink herself out of the distraction he'd placed on her. _Not surprising._

When she had though, Romy tried to understand what had happened; to understand how he had managed to make her feel so... _peaceful_ almost. Her head swung around as the towering figure stepped away from her, his bulky shadow shifting from its spot over her and moving back to the fire.

Again, Sh'osha's body blocked Romy from seeing what he was doing, and she'd admit that she was curious. Especially when she heard the distinct sound of those retractable blades that had once been used to save her life. Romy blinked, finally remembering that fact.

Whatever his intent was with her now, this giant _had_ saved her from that huge creature that had been intent on eating her. _Maybe he won't kill me_, she mused. _Then again, straight after saving me, he killed Jake_, another of her thoughts argued, a pang of pain hitting her as she thought about Jake's death.

It only took a few moments for Romy to realise that she was just going to have to wait to find out what the alien _would_ do. Fortunately for her, it only took a few moments for Sh'osha to turn around and swiftly bring Romy out of her thoughts.

In truth, it was what was resting in that huge, taloned hand of his that brought her back to the present. And it was obvious now what the ring of those twin blades had meant that he had been doing.

Sh'osha stepped back so that he was once more in front of Romy, and thrust his hand and its contents out to her. It almost annoyed him that, at first, the female's eyes merely flickered between his palm and his face. But he watched as her expression became hesitant, almost worried, and he had to exercise some of the control he was known for in keeping himself calm.

_He... he wants me to eat... _Rick_, _Romy thought blankly. She was hungry; but she wasn't _that_ hungry. There was no way that she was going cannibal. _No_ way. Even though her stomach clenched at the thought of food, the thought of eating what had mere moments ago been a person was far too overpowering; it disgusted her so much that she wanted to be sick. Felt like she needed to be. So Romy simply shook her head to decline the giant's offer.

Sh'osha stared at her for a moment, considering the female. He didn't quite see why she was refusing. He had scanned the meat to ensure that it was safe to eat and properly cooked enough for her ooman palette. So Sh'osha held the meat out once more to the female and, using his grasp on the ooman language, uttered what should have been an acceptable reassurance.

Romy blinked. The word had been spoken in a deep and harsh sounding voice, not quite pronounced normally as if it was almost unnaturally formed_. Of course it's unnatural, he's an _alien, Romy thought, frustrated. However the word was said, it was distinctly recognisable.

'_Safe'_.

What, exactly, he meant by that, Romy didn't know. Did he mean that the meat was safe? Or that she was? She stared at him blankly for a moment before realising that he still held the meat out before her.

"No thanks," she said, refusing his offer of... food... for the second time.

A growl from the huge alien startled her, making her involuntarily jump backward on her rock slightly. The hand containing the meat remained where it was, held firmly and pointedly outstretched to her. Romy frowned as she tried to think of what she could do. _He speaks English- _some_ English, at least. Maybe I can explain._

"Look, he might have been a dozy twat- among _other_ things- but I don't eat my own species."

Sh'osha regarded her silently for a moment, before grunting out his reply, the words awkward and far different from his own language.

"Must. Wronged You. Bad Blood."

As Romy continued to stare at him, trying to figure out whatever it was that a '_Bad Blood_' was, Sh'osha paused, attempting to find the right word for what he meant to say.

"Revenge."

She blinked at him, once more almost confused at his grasp of her language. _Guess he's quite good at English, _shethought_. Well, what do you know... I suppose my explanation should be better then..._

"Would you eat one of your own species?" she queried him.

Sh'osha tilted his head at the female's argument. _She has a point_, he thought, considering her objection. No; eating a member of his own species was out of the question. He would do not even do such a thing to a Bad Blood. And he realised now that that was what he had been asking of her; a thought that hadn't occurred to him before because he was so used to eating the humans that he hunted.

So, surprising her, Sh'osha withdrew his hand, taking the meat away from her. Satisfied that she'd got her point across, Romy almost smiled. But she didn't. She still had absolutely no idea what was going on, or what the alien would do now that she had declined his offer of food.

_At least he doesn't seem to be too hostile,_ Romy thought, trying to make herself feel slightly better about the situation she currently found herself in. Her penetrating blue eyes trailed warily after Sh'osha as he moved away from her, turning away as if he was content with ignoring her presence once more.

As he walked over to another of the rocks around the fire, Romy found herself wondering how it was that someone so massive could move making little to no noise as he did. _Then again_, a voice the back of her mind put in. _He can also become invisible and run faster than you thought possible. He's _not_ human. Just because he can speak English, doesn't mean that you should humanise him. He's an _alien.

And despite the semblance of an almost normal, yet slightly disturbing, exchange of words, Romy knew that the voice spoke the truth. She needed to remember that this alien wasn't human. That he _was_ dangerous.

If what had just happened with Rick and the others hadn't been example enough of that, then she needed her head examined. _Something probably necessary after the amount of times I've been whacked around over the past two days_, Romy thought almost bitterly.

As soon Sh'osha placed the slice of meat down, resting it on his leg, his hands moved up to disconnect his mask; and he saw the female shift. Watched as her body leaned forward slightly and her head angled his way.

She was curious; but the tension he sensed in her frame also told him that she was almost frightened. He gave no reaction to her movement, but merely continued in the action that was almost second nature to him.

Romy would admit any day that she was intrigued. She wanted desperately to see the face of the creature that had rescued her more than once. But a part of her warned that she might not _want_ to see what was hidden by that impassive mask. _He's an _alien, she reminded herself as she waited for him to remove the metal covering his face.

With a noise that sounded to Romy like the whooshing free of trapped air, Sh'osha disconnected the lines that were attached to his mask and finally removed it. Romy was barely able to suppress a sharp gasp when he did.

His body may have been humanoid in appearance, with the exception of his skin and the fact that every part of him was far bigger than any human, but his face- his entire head, in fact- was certainly _not_ human, Romy observed.

His face was fascinating. Completely different from any human face; and yet still totally fascinating. Romy couldn't take her eyes from him as they took in every detail that had before been masked under that shield of metal.

His large forehead was crested, its edges rimmed with points that appeared to be almost like small spikes, beneath which those thick, black, dreadlock-like hairs of his stemmed. There was a strange symbol at the centre, near the base of his forehead that Romy could clearly see, but had no idea what it meant. All she could tell for certain was that it looked to be some sort of scar, purposely carved onto him.

His skin there was the same as it was on the rest of his body, the colour slightly lighter brown, here fringing the edges of his face with a mixture of darker browns and greens.

The most obvious thing that made his face so utterly inhuman, however, was not his skin, or oddly shaped skull. It was his mouth that was so distracting. So _alien_. Because his mouth, instead of having cheeks or lips to cover it, had... _mandibles._ There was no other word for it.

Behind those, though, Romy could only see sharp teeth and she did not dare to look there any longer for fear of discovering just how much of a carnivore that this alien could be. So she quickly turned her eyes upward, finally looking to his eyes. Eyes that, she discovered, were golden. Golden, and very, _very_ focussed on her and her obvious staring.

Romy blushed and looked away swiftly. She hadn't meant to stare; it was rude. And she had no idea how he would react to such a thing.

For his part, Sh'osha had been about to eat what the female would not; however, when he looked up to see the female blatantly staring at him, he paused. The moment that her eyes had found his though, was the moment she averted her eyes and a wave of heat flooded her cheeks.

_Again, this ooman proves smart_, Sh'osha thought. The female had sense enough to look away, had she not, and had he the patience of a Youngblood; then he could very well have taken her bold gesture as a challenge. And as of yet, he still had not decided what he was going to do with her, so, in theory, it could have proved to have been an extremely costly move for the female.

Romy wrung her hands together almost nervously for a moment as she tried to avoid provoking the giant alien. One wrong step and it could all be over. And she might have just made that wrong step. _Shit_, she thought, trying to take her mind off of the heat warming her cheeks, and the blush that eventually faded.

When it had, Romy finally dared to look back up, ready to see the damage that she might accidentally have done; the anger she might inadvertently have provoked. But as soon as she did, Romy saw that something was wrong. He was gone; no longer sat on the rock opposite her.

Romy blinked, a moment of pure fear flashing through her. It wasn't until she heard a sort of clicking from behind her that she knew where he was. She didn't have to turn her head to figure out that it was him; Romy could feel the heat radiating from his body. The heat that had almost been comforting when he'd carried her to his camp.

_Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks_, was the only thought that ran repeatedly through Romy's mind as she sat as still as she possibly could, her back suddenly rigid and her eyes wide. Her teeth teased the inside of her bottom lip as she held in a breath, waiting for whatever was to come.

Little did Romy know, but the yautja, the alien that she was so afraid of in that moment, was not angry as he stood behind her, towering over her seated form. He was more... _amused_.

The female's reactions to him were intriguing. He'd seen her before, when she had been alone. Nothing had seemed able to stop her will to survive. And her reflex survival instinct had been to run. Yet, again, she had now developed the sense to stay put; knowing that there was no way she could possibly outrun him. Knowing that that was the best way for her to survive.

She was quite unlike any of the oomans he'd hunted in the past, and that surprised him, because the number of oomans that he had hunted truly was a _large_ number. _Perhaps I should keep her as a pet_, Sh'osha mused as he stared down at her.

It was an interesting thought. This ooman female had, after all, killed one of her own for him. That, at least, had proven an inkling of allegiance to him. _And she_ _shows_ _promise_, he thought.

Sh'osha mulled over the decision as he stood there, other factors about keeping the ooman running through his mind. And he came to the conclusion that more observation was required before any final decision could be reached. She _was_ still pyode amedha; _soft_ _meat_, after all.

Whether she was actually worthy of the honour of being his pet was still to be fully determined.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Apologies for the delay in getting this chapter to you guys, I've had a whole load of things going on; A level exam results, getting into University, not getting University accommodation, getting a room in a student house instead, getting piss wet through on the canal boat for my mum's birthday, working a lot, dying my hair blackblue and pink... So yeah, not that you really cared to know that, just thought I'd justify the delay a little. :)**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will let me know what you think! :)**

**Oh and also, since I will be starting Uni soon, my chapters might be a little more delayed than usual- and, I know what you're thinking, "More delayed? It took you a month to get the last chapter done without Uni!"- but I do hope you guys will bear with me, because I will update as soon as possible. :)**

**Kit xx**


	6. Anaesthesia Is The Easy Way Out

Suddenly, the heat at her back seemed to disappear, but Romy resisted the urge to turn around. For all she knew... well, she wasn't sure _what_ she knew by that point in time. Minutes of silence past before Romy dared to risk a glance at the creature she thought was behind her.

_Nothing_, she thought, perplexed as she saw that the alien was no longer behind her. _He's_ _gone... Now what? _Romy looked around the camp for a moment, wondering what she should do. There was no point running; he'd catch her. _If he can find me, that is_, she thought briefly before dismissing such a thing.

It seemed to her that this creature seemed to be finding her rather a lot on this planet- as had the rest of the party she'd been brought there with. _This planet is just too damn small for me to run_, she thought with an audible sigh at the ridiculous concept.

As she shifted her neck, she felt something flake off the skin of her throat. Looking down to where the fleck had fallen, it didn't take Romy long to identify it as dried blood. Her hand quickly flew to her throat, but there, she found only more of the dried stuff, peeling off on her hands. _What the...?_

Romy was confused. She was _sure_ that Rick hadn't cut her... had he? _Maybe it's Seth's blood... Or Rick's..._ Romy wasn't even sure that it mattered anymore. All this planet was, was a place to kill or be killed- and, for some reason, she was still alive.

Trying to wipe the remainder of the unknown victim's blood from her skin, Romy's eyes strayed around the camp. It was the first time that Romy actually had a chance to look at the camp she found herself in at any detail. And, although definitely a camp, it was unlike any she'd seen before.

The fire, still flickering over the burnt form of blackened flesh that used to be Rick, was the definite centre of the camp. As it was, rocks, like the one she sat on, ringed its periphery. But those were by no means the things that caught Romy's eye as she looked around the camp.

Mortified, Romy's eyes fell on the corner of the camp, in a place that she'd not before noticed. In a place that she then could not take her eyes away from. And they settled on something that shot a chill through her body. _Bones_. And what looked suspiciously like a lot of _human_ bones. If it was possible, Romy found herself even more frozen to the spot that the creature had set her down on.

_Am I next?_ she wondered, horrified. _Is the only reason that I'm still alive because he doesn't want to roast me like Rick _right now_?_ The thoughts hit her as quickly as she knew that her alien saviour- though perhaps not for long- could run. _Oh shit, shit, shit... I should run. Leave. Now while he's gone-_ but before Romy had even finished forming her plan, she found herself interrupted.

The heat was back; and Romy knew what _that_ meant. He was back- _it_ was back. Any thoughts that Romy had had of standing quickly fled and she froze. She could feel his warmth on her back, but she hadn't heard him. She hadn't heard a sound as he'd appeared behind her, and yet he was undeniably there. Romy was sure of it. She didn't know how long they remained frozen like that, the only noise disrupting them being the sound of her breathing. He did though.

Sh'osha stared down at the ooman female as he stood behind her. She had gone deathly still- almost as still as he himself was. An ooman, of course, could never hope to match the statuesque stillness that the yautja had perfected. Although, it looked to Sh'osha as if the female was giving it a good try.

He observed her as she tried to remain unmoving, wondering what she was trying to achieve by doing so. If the female was showing that she understood his strength; his _threat_, and stilled to prove her submission, then Sh'osha could respect that. If it was merely fear that had her hold her form so still, then Sh'osha was not sure how to treat her.

Fear was natural in oomans. A typical response- particularly in regards to his kind. But Sh'osha was certain that he had given the female no cause to fear him. Hadn't he prevented both Briar Wolf and her own kind from killing her? Hadn't he brought her to his camp instead of leaving her to the wilderness? Had he given her any reason at all to fear him?

Yet her heartbeat had not slowed since he had stepped behind her- or as soon as she had realised it anyway. Sh'osha didn't understand the female at all; but he put that down to the fact that he was, as of yet, quite unfamiliar with ooman females.

Resolving to make sense of the female later, Sh'osha simply said, "Up."

His deep, gravelly and guttural voice startled Romy enough to make her flinch. She blinked at him, pausing for a moment. But, clearly, it was taking Romy too long to follow instructions as she felt a warm, but hard, hand push against her back. She didn't know it, but the shove that knocked her from the rock she sat on was merely a gentle nudge on Sh'osha's part.

Though she wasn't quite sure how, Romy had made no sound or exclamation as her hands and knees hit the ground; and before she could stop herself, Romy's head whipped around to where Sh'osha stood. And without even thinking, she shot him the harshest look that she could mustered before realising that she was giving a huge, killer alien the evil eye.

Immediately, though, her expression was replaced with surprise as she heard the booming, thunder-like noise erupting from the alien. _Is he... Is he _laughing_ at me?_ Romy thought, bewildered.

"Up," Sh'osha repeated, his amusement seemingly fading as his laugh abruptly cut short.

Frowning at the alien, Romy started to get up, murmuring, "Alright, _alright_."

When she was finally standing, as she had been instructed, all Romy could do was stare in front of her at the alien in waiting. That was until his huge, clawed hand reached out and wrapped around her wrist. Romy froze, unsure of what he was trying to do. _He speaks English; why not ask him_? she thought quickly.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice far more quiet than she would have liked it to have been.

Sh'osha paused, his head tilting to the side. That the ooman female was questioning him was probably a normal reaction, particularly since she was aware that he spoke her language. But he didn't like it. Instead of answering her, Sh'osha tugged at Romy's arm, pulling her forward slightly.

Of course, to Romy, it felt like she was being yanked sharply toward the alien. She managed to pull herself back enough to stop herself from falling forward.

"What _are_ you?" Romy gasped, just regaining her footing.

Sh'osha merely grunted in response as she questioned him again.

"I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me what you are," Romy stated, metaphorically putting her foot down.

What Romy _really_ should have said was that she wasn't going anywhere with Sh'osha _willingly_ until he told her what he is, because both of them were very much aware how easily Sh'osha could force her to move. _Hell, he could even pick me up again_, Romy thought, fighting back a frown at the thought.

But the ooman female standing up to him intrigued Sh'osha. Most ooman males didn't hold their ground when confronted with him, let alone an ooman female. Then again, he had never acted so placidly toward any of the ooman males he'd faced. _Perhaps she need a reminder of what I am capable of..._

Releasing her arm, Sh'osha issued the challenge in a roar so loud that Romy had never heard it's like. His mandibles flared, Sh'osha kept his eyes firmly fixed on the female so that he could study her reaction. It surprised him then, that she still held her ground, flinching quite violently as the gesture hit her.

She squeezed her eyelids shut in an attempt to wait out whatever it was that the alien was doing. Though she appeared outwardly almost capable of being calm, inwardly, Romy was terrified. The only thing that, in reality, kept her glued to the spot was an old lesson that her dad had taught her. When confronted by a bear, don't run_. It's sort of the same principle..._

When Sh'osha's roar lapsed into silence, he tilted his head to consider the ooman. Yes, she had shown signs of submission by averting her eyes and flinching backward. But she'd still stayed standing in the same spot. _Strange ooman_, Sh'osha thought, realising that he may have more on his plate, so to speak, than he'd initially thought. Eventually though, Sh'osha rewarded Romy's bravery in standing her ground by answering her question.

"Yautja," he grunted.

_A _what_ now?_ Romy thought, blinking. But to hide her confusion, Romy nodded anyway. She would have to be content knowing the name of the mammoth creature she was faced with. It didn't really matter though, she supposed. _Knowing what he is really makes no difference... It's just better than calling him 'that alien'._

Satisfied that he would face no more objection from the ooman female, Sh'osha took hold of her wrist again. She flinched at the touch, he presumed because she was still wary after his challenge. _Good_, he thought, pulling her along behind him as he dragged her toward his ship.

* * *

><p>Where she was being taken, Romy didn't know. But she was almost certain that she wouldn't like it. This yautja was taking her away from his camp to goodness knows where. <em>Maybe he's taking me to others like him...<em> Romy thought, the prospect making her shudder. _Maybe he's going to kill me there..._

As it turned out though, the huge alien had other intentions as he stopped dead at the edge of a clearing amongst the trees, causing Romy to slam into his back. The still body of the yautja felt to Romy like she had run into a wall, yet the impact appeared to do nothing to Sh'osha. She didn't even think he'd noticed.

They seemed to stand there for some time, him looking at something, and Romy just staring at the foliage in front of her, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Of course, she had no idea that she couldn't see what he was looking at because it was cloaked and invisible to her.

So when Sh'osha removed the cloaking device that concealed his ship, Romy was stunned. Actually, she was more than stunned; if she could have described her own feelings then she would have said that she just about 'shit a brick' at the sudden apparition of the dangerous-looking alien contraption that she could only assume was a space ship.

"What the fuck?" Romy let slip out as she stood, looking around Sh'osha at the, suddenly very different, landscape before them.

She received no answer to her whispered question as Sh'osha merely stood still for another minute. It was almost like he was evaluating something in the way that he just stared at his ship. Romy couldn't figure out what it was that he was doing, and he'd been so motionless for so long that he, once again, startled her with a sudden movement.

Sh'osha took a few steps towards his ship, and only stopped when he could sense the resistance from the ooman female. He turned to face her and looked down at the woman, who's arm he still gripped. He could see her heart pounding, he could sense her fear; though he wasn't sure why she would be scared, he had done nothing to harm her. He tilted his head at her and waited; she would calm down soon.

The fact that Sh'osha had stopped simply to turn around and stare at her, only unnerved Romy more though. She was terrified again. Too many questions were swimming through her mind, none of them settling long enough to form anything coherent, and more enough to compound into a pile of fear.

What was that thing? Was it a space ship? Were there others like him inside it? What was he going to do with her? What the Hell was going on? If her unsaid questions hadn't been enough to drive her into a state of almost hyperventilation, then Sh'osha's intent and focussed staring had. And whatever Romy was trying to do to calm down, she couldn't seem to.

She didn't even see it coming when Sh'osha's giant hand came up and sprayed something directly into her face. And she didn't even have time to wonder what it was before she was unconscious. Sh'osha placed Romy over his shoulder, stopping her before she hit the ground.

Putting her under a mild anaesthetic had been the easiest choice, and the safest choice for her, whilst he brought her onto his ship. She was acting like an animal; and the best thing to do when animals are stressed and need to be moved is to knock them out. So that's exactly what Sh'osha did; for the ooman female's own good, that was.

* * *

><p>Romy <em>wasn't<em> comfortable. She could feel the side of her face pressed up against something hard and warm; in fact, she could feel her whole body pressed against it. Groaning, Romy's hand slid across the smooth surface and she pushed herself away from the floor. Only when she opened her eyes did Romy realise that something was obviously missing. Her clothes. Romy's eyes widened; _now_ she was awake properly.

"Where the Hell are my clothes?" she wondered aloud quickly.

If that hadn't been enough to alarm her, she realised that the hard surface she'd been lying on was a smooth, metallic floor and she now found herself in the middle of a room that, at its closest, could be said to resemble a bathroom. Just a _giant_ one.

"What the actual fuck...?" she said staring at the strange room.

Quickly figuring out that she was alone, Romy pulled herself up from the floor. She didn't realise that she would hurt as much as she did, but her entire body throbbed when she moved. It seemed like the time she'd spent on the planet was finally catching up with her.

As Romy stood up, even her feet hurt from the amount she'd been using them in the past few days. She grimaced now at the pain that she somehow hadn't felt. _Probably adrenaline_, she supposed, cursing that the huge yau- whatever it was that he'd called himself- had ever knocked her out.

When Romy looked around the room she couldn't help but notice how everything seemed to be recognizable and yet distinctly unfamiliar. It _was_, for all intensive purposes, a bathroom. Now all, well perhaps not _all_, that Romy had to worry about was why she had been deposited, _naked_, on a bathroom floor in, she supposed, the alien ship that she'd seen before.

Romy stood awkwardly on her little spot in the middle of the room, her hands lingering at her sides. She'd never really been shy, and nakedness didn't bother her all that much- particularly since she was alone. The only thing that nagged at her was _why_ she was naked; surely the alien didn't just steal her clothes for shits and giggles?

It took a while for Romy to notice that one wall of the room was shiny enough to be reflective, and reflective enough to act as a mirror. That was when Romy caught sight of herself, or the haggard mess that she had turned into. _Woah_, she thought, taking a step toward the mirror-like wall.

Her skin was coloured in bruises, particularly on her arms and legs. The purplish lines around her throat and the cut that Rick had pressed into her skin brought a painful memory back to her. Her eyes were black, as was the area around her jaw. She'd been hit far too many times to remember what had caused each bruise. The worst part of it though, was that she could hardly tell the difference between the dirt covering her body and the bruises

Her arm looked horrible; the graze from where she had been shot was still covered in blood and it hurt like Hell. It wasn't clean, just like the rest of her, but it worried her that it might get infected just because those idiots hadn't let her bandage it. _I look like shit_, she thought with a grimace.

She was just about to reach over to test the skin around the wound when a whooshing noise from behind her directed her attention away. Romy turned quickly to find a door, that she hadn't noticed, open and the mammoth humanoid whose species name she could still not remember strode into the room with unnerving grace.

He didn't say anything for a while and the two of them simply stared at each other, Romy only shifting to cover herself slightly- she may not have been shy, but that didn't mean she felt comfortable being so vulnerable in front of such a huge and dangerous creature.

"What the hell is going on? Where are my clothes?" she asked eventually.

Sh'osha tilted his head at the ooman female for a moment. Her tone was... demanding? How it was that she thought that she was in a position to demand anything he had no idea, but he soon placed the emotion down to the spike in her heart rate and blood pressure as she'd noticed him. Sh'osha soon realised that this was simply an ooman front for a fear that she was trying to hide, but her body was betraying to him.

"Wash. Clean," he clarified, pointing to her and then to the bath that Romy had been ignoring.

"What the hell?" Romy said, frowning.

She didn't understand what he was talking about. Was he really telling her to have a bath right now? What about... He was an _alien_, surely bath time wasn't the first thing to think about? It wasn't what she was thinking about anyway; because right then she was trying to figure out why he hadn't killed her yet.

Sh'osha stared at Romy and, without a word, managed to make her cease her questioning. The expression on his face, though alien to her because of his unusual features, quickly became one that obviously meant that he was not to be fucked with. It was enough to make her pause, at least.

"Clean," he repeated.

Her frown darkening as she stared at the alien in front of her, she nodded. Clearly, he thought that washing up was the most important thing to happen right now. Seeing that she understood him, he turned and left, the door closing quickly behind him. _What even just happened?_ she thought, shaking her head.

"Yeah... _clean_," she muttered to herself, half-hoping that he might still be able to hear her.

"I'd be plenty clean if you hadn't abducted me and made me run around on an alien planet just to stop my neighbours from trying to use me to hunt you... Bastard," she added after her quiet rant was finished.

Romy wasn't quite sure why she was ranting, but it felt appropriate to her to let out some of her frustration at the fact he's spray-gassed her into unconsciousness and not said more than two words to her since. _Bath time, my arse. How ridiculous._

Romy glanced over at what she supposed was almost like a pool-sized bath, but instead of being filled with water, like she would've thought, she noticed that the liquid inside it was a cloudy white colour. As much as she didn't want to see how angry that huge alien could get, Romy was determined not to find out what that liquid was. _Am I _fuck_ getting in that. It's _white, she thought, warily.

So when she spotted something that oddly resembled a shower, Romy immediately thought that that would be a more reasonable and viable way to wash. She wandered over to where what she hoped was a shower stood and looked at it carefully for a moment.

It was an odd contraption; clearly alien technology wasn't at all going to be easy for her to figure out. _None of that 'Independence Day' crap, then..._ _He could've at least told me how to work this thing_, she thought, frowning as she tried to word out how to turn it on. _Then again, I was probably supposed to _not_ object to swimming in that white stuff..._

After minutes of trying, Romy finally figured out how to turn the shower-like contraption on. Though, it was lucky that she'd had the foresight to keep out of the way of whatever it should spray out of it, just in case, as torrents of water, _literal_ torrents, thudded down into the basin area below. Had she been standing under its flow then it would have hurt her so much that it would have been like standing under a waterfall.

Struggling slightly, Romy managed to undo what she had done to turn the ridiculous shower on. Her frown deepened as she turned around to look at the pool she had so far rejected. She didn't want her alien... captor? Was that what he was?- to come back and for her not to have done as he'd said. Romy had seen how directed the creature's temper could be, and how badly it could go for the person on the receiving end of such anger. She didn't want that to be her.

With a sigh, she knew what was going to happen. _Guess I'm getting in that stuff then_, she thought, even though she was incredibly unhappy about it. But then another thought hit her as she stepped closer to the pool-like bath. What was in that water? Was it, like the shower, only suitable for the alien the ship belonged to? Would it hurt her?

_Oh fuck it, _Romy thought, now scowling as she warily dipped her foot into the water. The only way to answer her questions was to just go ahead and find out; so she did. Surprisingly, the murky liquid felt just like water, with nothing odd about it apart from its colour. It was _pleasantly_ warm as well, which was a relief from the intense heat of the whole place.

Sitting down on the ledge, Romy lowered herself into the bath as slowly as she could. She discovered that being surrounded by the watery-substance was actually incredibly soothing; something about it just seemed to make her feel a little better. She couldn't help but let out a soft groan as she leant against the edge of the bath.

It was much deeper than she had expected and it reached up to her shoulders; but with the size of the alien that had brought her there, she imagined that it would have to be that big. The height of the, for lack of a better word, water, just made the feeling of relief all the better.

In fact, it actually felt altogether a little too pleasant. She wondered if whatever was in the liquid that made it white, was affecting her. Romy couldn't actually say that she cared though, since it was gradually making her feel so much better.

She submerged herself under the liquid, running her fingers through the tangles in her hair. There were a lot more knots than she would have liked, but a lot less than she had expected. Romy was just glad that her hair wasn't as long as she'd previously grown it, because it would have been so much worse had her hair been any longer than her shoulders.

She surfaced, enjoying how the cloudy liquid dripped off of her, soothing her aching body. In fact, Romy was enjoying herself so much that when she was interrupted, she could barely suppress a groan. Her eyes followed the source of her distraction to the alien intruder in the doorway.

Sh'osha stared at her as she stared at him, and he made a sound that seemed almost to speak his satisfaction at her complying to his orders. Or, at least, that's what Romy thought it meant; she couldn't say for sure. It took her a while to tear her eyes away from his golden ones, and only then did she notice what he as holding. Sh'osha saw where her gaze had travelled and immediately held out the fur in his hand; it was meant for her anyway.

_Is that... supposed to be like a towel or something?_ Romy wondered, but she said nothing. She just guessed that that was her signal to get out of the bath-type-thing though. But when he made a sound that was halfway between a grunt and a growl, she was sure of it. Instead of lifting herself out of the bath as she would have lifted herself out of a pool, Romy waded over to the too-large steps that she noticed at one end of it. She didn't want to risk trying to support herself on her already-injured arm.

She made her way over to Sh'osha and stood in front of him. Somehow, she wasn't quite sure if she was just supposed to take the fur thing from him or not. Romy barely had time to react as he threw it at her, and she only just managed to catch hold of it before it hit her in the face.

"Dry," was all that she heard him say, or all that she _thought_ she'd heard him say anyway.

So Romy did as she was told and wrapped the fur around herself. If she was being truthful, then she'd admit that she was glad not to be naked anymore. It was more than intimidating to be standing in front of a huge creature like him. She couldn't help but feel so vulnerable- even if he _had_ saved her life. Romy stared up at him as he towered over her, and she couldn't stop herself from feeling small.

Even with the heat of the room, she could still feel more warmth radiating from him and it was making her even more nervous just to be standing in front of him. But, in a short moment, he pulled out the same spray stuff that had anesthetised her before. _Oh great, knockout gas again. Just what I wanted... _she thought quickly, but before he could say anything, Sh'osha had sprayed her with it once more.

His hand reached out an caught the ooman female as she lost consciousness again. It was much easier to deal with her this way than with her struggling to understand him; particularly after she'd just been looking at him like she thought he was going rip her face off, or something of the like.

Sh'osha lifted her into his arms, and found himself glad that he had insisted that she bathe. She had smelled strange; too much of her self-exertions and the males he'd brought her there with. He was glad now that her scent had been somewhat dulled and washed away.

He carried her out into a hallway and into an adjoining room that he used solely for medical purposes- though it was rare that he ever needed to make use of it. Sh'osha lowered her onto a table at one end of the room, and stopped momentarily to observe how small she appeared to be in comparison to the size of the table.

After the small pause, Sh'osha began checking over the ooman female's wounds. If he was planning on keeping her, then she _was_ going to be healthy, not weak. Most of her wounds were bruises, but she had a number of cuts that had been open while she had been running across the planet. For those, he applied a small salve that would combat any infection that could possibly arise as a result.

Most of her injuries were only minor. The wound from the bullet the ooman male had shot her with was slightly worse however, and he made sure that it was thoroughly cleaned before stitching it closed. He looked down at her when he had finished, inspecting his own handiwork.

Oomans were so fragile. There would be no doubt that this female would carry a few scars for her time so far on the planet, but that did not concern Sh'osha. If anything, it made him more pleased, as they would show her bravery and ability to survive. It would make her a better pet, and prove that she was worth more. Oomans might be fragile, but this one had survived a lot. And Sh'osha knew that he was going to find it very interesting watching what this ooman would do next.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: SO sorry for the lack of updates; long story short, started Uni- which has been taking up my time as I have to write a lot of original fiction, so I've been neglecting my fanfics : -then my computer DIED. D: **_**Luckily**_**, a couple of weeks before, I'd backed up my "Prose" folder (which has my fanfics in a sub-folder). **_**Un**_**luckily, however, I'd been working on this story since then and I've been annoying myself stupid trying to remember what I'd written that disappeared. :/ So basically, I'm a tit that's awful at updating... but hey, at least I've not abandoned the story.**

**Ah well, the chapter's here now anyway... Hope you liked it! :) Reviews would be appreciated, even though I know I don't deserve them for leaving you guys hanging for so long. :/**

**Kit xx**


	7. Assessing The Situation

Romy let out a long, contented sigh as she woke from a deep and dreamless sleep. Her eyes still closed, she felt something soft covering her and something incredibly comfortable under her. It took her a moment to realise that she wasn't in bed, tucked up under her covers at home though.

Her eyes snapped open immediately as the memories flooded back into her sleep-hazed mind. _I'm... I'm in an alien's spaceship..._ Romy thought blankly as she sat up. _Holy fuck._ She ignored the lingering aches and pains all over her body as she looked around the room, taking in the details of all that she could see.

She was sat on a number of furs on an oddly raised type of bed, at least she guessed that that was what it was. The floor and walls were metal and grey, and all that Romy could think about was the clinical emptiness of the room. Everything was so... alien-looking. Not in the literal sense that it _was_ alien, because that much was obvious, but more that everything seemed so unfamiliar and unusual.

The warmth of the room in particular was odd. In fact, she could swear that it was actually hotter inside this room than it had been outside- and that would have been hard to imagine if she wasn't living it. She looked down at her clothes and found herself wearing her shirt and shorts again; the only odd thing she found was that she wasn't wearing her underwear. She had no idea where they had gone; then again, she had no idea how she had gotten back into her clothes either.

A sound from her right startled Romy and her head snapped around to the direction of it. The door that she'd barely noticed before slid open, and now, in the open space that replaced it, towered the humanoid creature that had brought her here. _Oh, great_, she thought. It felt like she had fallen into some weird Sci-fi movie and she was just waiting for the credits to roll. If only she were so lucky.

Sh'osha walked into the room slowly in an attempt to cause the ooman the least amount of alarm as he approached. He could read her fear in even the tiniest of her movements and since there _was_ a reason he had come to the room he'd left her in- he didn't need to make her any more skittish.

She also had to learn to obey him without having to be knocked unconscious. And there was no better time than the present to begin teaching her. He stopped at the side of the pallet he'd left her in and noticed her attempt to freeze, which, whether voluntary or not, was a good thing in Sh'osha's eyes.

"N'got," he said, knowing that the ooman wouldn't understand.

She merely stared at him uncomprehendingly. Whatever he had said, she had no idea what it meant. Romy just tried not to move as the yautja towered over her. Even if he had saved her life, he was still damn intimidating. And she still felt so vulnerable.

"Lie down," he growled after a moment.

Romy scowled up at the giant creature in front of her. There was no way that she was just going to lie down- she had no idea what he would do then. _But what will do if I don't?_ a voice in the back of her mind asked.

"Um, no thanks, I'm fine," she replied uncertainly.

"Lie down," Sh'osha repeated, his voice that same alien growl.

Romy didn't know what to do. In her opinion, this was a little too much. She understood cooperating to an extent; But the heat radiating from him felt a little too... well it was a little too intimidating for her to think that lying down was a good idea. And her hesitation was all that Sh'osha was willing to stand for; he had told her twice, after all.

With one of his large hands pressing on her chest, he pushed her back onto the bed, forcing her to lie down. The gesture was gentle, and one of necessity, he knew. He had done it as much to ensure that she didn't hurt herself as to prove his mastery of her.

Unfortunately, however, Romy panicked under the alien touch. She knew that she had no chance of fighting him off, or pushing him away, but that didn't stop her from trying anyway.

"M-di h'dlak," he said, forgetting the words that she would understand for a moment.

"Stop," he added eventually, unable to find the exact words he wanted.

Romy was too busy freaking out and panicking to listen to his words. Eventually, Sh'osha just gently pushed the ooman female onto her side, keeping her securely in place with his hand. She would just have to see firsthand that he meant no harm to her.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she yelled as she was forcibly rolled towards the wall.

"Stop manhandling me!"

She couldn't see anything other than the metal wall in front of her because he'd positioned her back to him. Fear was overriding her senses even though the way he was restraining her admittedly wasn't hurting her. But she still didn't like it. In truth, she thought that she'd been restrained enough over the last couple of days and she hated it.

That was when Sh'osha's instincts kicked in. Romy was more than a little confused when she heard a low purring coming from behind her. She frowned and paused in her struggles. It sounded like an extremely loud cat, but Romy knew that it must have been the yautja. She was sure that she'd heard him making that sound before.

Romy didn't understand, but a strange feeling slowly came over her, increasing with the sound of the purr. _Weird_, she thought, as she suddenly started to feel somewhat calmer. And for some reason she didn't even really mind being manhandled as much- well, she _did_ mind, but she wasn't nearly as frightened by the prospect.

She turned her head around to look at Sh'osha and watched as he held her arm. His hands drawing her attention to there, Romy finally noticed that the bullet wound on her arm had been stitched. He touched her as he had done before, in a way that was gentle in his opinion, and his eyes scanned his handiwork.

After a moment studying the wound, Sh'osha was satisfied that it would heal well. With a single nod, he dropped her arm and the purring abruptly stopped. Romy blinked, almost as if she was coming out of some sort of haze. But before she could even think to ask about it- whether it would be understood or not- Sh'osha was striding out of the room.

"Wait!" she shouted, rolling over on the strange bed and pushing herself up.

Despite the head rush she got from standing so quickly, she went for the door. But the door slid shut before Romy could reach it and it wouldn't open again for her. After hitting it a number times with her fists and only stopping when her hands hurt a little too much. With that, she sighed and slid down the door, sitting with her back against it. _What even just happened?_ she wondered, letting her head fall back against the door in exasperation.

* * *

><p>It must have been hours, or it could have been less- Romy had lost all concept of time in that windowless room- before Sh'osha returned. Romy was still leaning against the door when it slid open once again, and she fell backward- straight into Sh'osha's legs.<p>

He grunted as she fell against him and watched the ooman female as she scrambled off of him and to her feet. She stepped awkwardly away from him, eyeing him carefully. She had wanted him to come back, simply because she didn't know what else would happen, but now... Romy wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't just better off alone.

But Sh'osha didn't move towards her. He just held up a beckoning hand and indicated for her to follow him. Swallowing the lump rising in her dry throat, Romy knew that she'd have to make the decision as to whether she did as he said or not quickly; and the decision she made had her following after him before the door could close on her again. Or before he turned around and decided to carry her where ever it was that he wanted to take her.

She walked awkwardly behind him through a corridor just as metallic as the room she had just been in, only here, the walls were covered in some strange carvings and images. As her eyes roamed over them, Romy crossed one hand over herself and held her elbow.

Even though he strode ahead slightly, Sh'osha noticed the small movement. Her body language told him that she was uneasy. He was almost pleased that the female was wary of new places, but the feeling was unnecessary while he was beside her. She would learn.

Sh'osha led her to his ship's kitchen, though he could feel her hesitation as she stopped uncertainly just inside of the room. He'd brought her there because he was well aware that she needed to eat and drink. And he had a suspicion that after rejecting his previous offer of food, then she would reject any other offer that he tried to make unless she saw exactly what she was eating. Well, actually, he was certain that as long as she knew that she wasn't eating another ooman then she would be fine.

For her part, Romy waited by the door that swished shut behind her. She just stood there and watched as the yautja moved around the kitchen-type area. She could only assume that it was a kitchen from the look of the surfaces and other things. She could almost make out a type of freezer- or at least that was what she thought it was.

Sh'osha stopped suddenly and turned to look at her, staring at her with those unusual golden eyes of his. He pointed to a bench beside a large table, motioning for her to sit. Romy didn't do anything, she just looked from Sh'osha to the bench and back to Sh'osha again.

"Sit," he commanded.

She frowned a little, but did as he said. She couldn't tell why he was telling her to do it, but she didn't feel like disobeying this giant creature. Not when all that he was telling her to do was sit anyway. So she went and sat down. Sh'osha grunted as she did. That was good. Maybe she would behave reasonably well.

Satisfied, he went over to his freezer and brought out some food. Both meat and fruit. Her palette may not have been as advanced as his, but he was learned in what oomans could and could not eat. Romy stared at the different foods that were placed before her and wondered what it was.

She could tell that the meats were meat immediately, but the other things were so oddly-shaped and coloured that it took her a moment to figure out that they were probably fruit. At least, she hoped. Her eyes fell upon something familiar though; a berry. It was one of the ones that she had picked up when she was searching for food on the planet. She picked it up and smiled a little. _At least this one wouldn't have killed me..._ she thought.

Sh'osha kept bringing out more and more different types of foods. In fact, he brought so much out that she didn't know what to do. She just stared at all of the strange cuisines until she realised that he was looking at her again. Staring.

"Eat."

She sighed.

"Jeez, well you certainly seem to know how to cater for... my species... don't you?" she said.

He didn't say anything and she sighed again. She really didn't need to be told twice; she was absolutely starving. Although Romy was wary of the meat so she avoided it. After this guy had tried to make her eat Rick she felt that she had a right to be dubious. But she tried the fruit and found that most of them were good.

She liked the sweeter ones of them best, and she was too hungry to care about the ones that she didn't like. Sh'osha was pleased that she was eating, she needed to maintain her strength. Soon enough, Romy was full however and he just looked at her as she stopped. In his opinion the ooman female should eat more. She was thin and she should be stronger. So she was going to have to eat more.

"Eat," he said again.

"Thanks, but I'm full," she said, pushing some of the food away in an attempt to show him her meaning in case he didn't understand.

Sh'osha stared. _Full_. She couldn't be full. She hadn't eaten enough yet, had she? She couldn't have. He pushed the food closer to her again. Romy scowled. She was finished and she knew that she wouldn't be able to eat anymore even if she tried.

She pushed the food away again and stared at him. He growled a little and she froze as he pushed the food back to her. She looked at it for a moment. They were acting like children, but she didn't know how to get her point across more adequately.

"Seriously, I'm finished. If I eat any more then I'll be sick," she tried.

Somehow she was surprisingly calm. That was probably just because he hadn't made a move that had scared her enough to freak her out again though. _Yet_. But for his part, Sh'osha paused. He understood what she was saying. Perhaps her appetite, like her palette, was not as advanced as his.

He had thought that it might be similar since she had eaten so readily when he first put the food in front of her. Apparently not. But he couldn't have his pet being sick however. So, against his better judgement, he removed the food, quickly packaging it all away again.

"Thank you," Romy said.

Sh'osha didn't even turn around at the noise.

* * *

><p>Sh'osha had taken her back to the room he had allocated her and had left her there with an instruction to sleep. She frowned as the door closed behind him. She didn't think that she'd be getting out of the room for a long while so she might as well do as he said.<p>

Romy lay down in the same place that she'd woken up in. It was strange to try and sleep with so much going on; with so much that she didn't know about or understand. _What the hell is going on?_ she wondered. This yautja was treating her wounds, feeding her, giving her a place to stay. Was she like a guest to him? A guest who's family and friends he had hunted down and killed? Romy didn't understand at all.

It took her a long time to fall asleep. She kept hearing strange noises that she supposed were probably normal for this strange ship, but they were totally alien to her and were keeping her from relaxing. The heat was too much for her to comfortably fall asleep too. _What I wouldn't give for a fan_, she thought as she waved her hand in front of face in an attempt to form some sort of draft.

Eventually though, Romy did fall asleep, but, even then, she didn't have a much better time. Her thoughts were many and her dreams were confusing. The worst in particular was when her dreams recalled Jake getting his head blown off by Sh'osha.

She woke up panting, her ragged breath coming out in sharp bursts. Her immediate thoughts were that she had to escape. She had to get out before she met the same fate as Jake and the others. Romy tried the door again and again but failed to open it.

She crumpled to her knees on the floor, resting her forehead against the warm metal for a moment. She couldn't even get through the door; how was she supposed to do anything else. _No way out..._ Romy thought dejectedly. _He killed Jake, and the others... Why am I not dead?_

It was something she just couldn't understand; she couldn't understand it at all. And Romy could only hope that he would answer her when she asked- and she would _have_ to ask. Eventually, all she could do was curl up in the foetal position over those furs again.

* * *

><p>Romy had tried to sleep, but she couldn't. She had too many thoughts swirling around in her mind. She sat on the bed and stared at the door blankly. He would come again eventually. She knew it. And then she was determined to find out exactly what was going on.<p>

She'd done as he said- or as the grunted orders he'd given her had instructed. But he hadn't given her any indication as to why she wasn't dead yet. Was he just too full to eat her right now? Was he just keeping her for later, like some chicken in a coop? Was there no room in his fridge to just kill her and save her for later? Had he just been fattening her up with the food he'd given her earlier?

Or was she there for some other reason that she couldn't understand? A reason that she couldn't even form in her mind because she was too horrified at the possibility of being eaten. So Romy waited. And waited. She had no idea for how long though- the lack of windows was still confusing her sense of time. She knew that it felt like a long time, at least.

Eventually, he came, just as Romy had suspected he would. The door slid open and Sh'osha stood there. He cast a huge shadow into the room that was almost menacing as he stopped in the doorway. Romy took a breath. She'd decided that there was no time like the present to ask her questions.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

Sh'osha stared. It was obvious why she was here. She had somehow integrated herself into the company of males when he'd taken them. It was simple. In fact, she knew more about that part of her journey than he did.

So he answered, "You with the males."

She frowned.

"No, I didn't mean 'why am I on this planet?'; I meant, why am I _here?_ In this... place?"

He stared for a long time, tilting his head to the side. It was clear to Romy that she was going to receive no answer though.

"Why am I not dead?" she tried.

At that, Sh'osha was confused. He wasn't entirely certain about what she was asking him.

"You want die?" he asked slowly.

Her eyes widened.

"Not particularly. No."

He looked over at her some more, trying to determine the reasoning behind what she was saying.

"Why haven't you killed me?" Romy said.

Ah, now _that_ made sense.

"You kill male for me. Try protect me."

He left out the fact that he hadn't needed any type of protection- let alone from a small ooman like her. It was the thought and the attempt that made her valuable to him. Romy blinked. She hadn't thought about that.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," she murmured.

He dismissed that comment and continued as if she had said nothing.

"You be Pet."

"What?"

He thought for a moment. That _was_ the ooman word for it, wasn't it?

"Pet," he repeated finally.

_ "Pet?"_ Romy repeated, blinking.

He nodded once, noting her tone. She was outraged, if he read her voice correctly. And he was right; Romy was infuriated. _Pet_? she thought. Pet_? Who does he think he is?_

"Let's get this straight," Romy started.

"I'm not a house cat or some goldfish that you can just lock up and watch for your own amusement. I'm a _person_."

He growled a little. She had spoken too fast for him to correctly understand what she was saying. He could tell that she was angry about something though. And that confused him. It wasn't the reaction that he had thought he would receive at the news. She should have been honoured at the prospect of being his pet.

"Say again. Slower," he requested, his voice dangerously low.

Romy opened her mouth. She was too wrapped up in her anger to consider the possible consequences of her outburst. She didn't think about how the colossal alien would react to her words at all.

"I am a person- a human being. I am _not_ a pet," she concluded, virtually spelling out her words.

And he _did_ understand that. Though what he couldn't understand was her reasoning behind this. She should be proud to be his Pet. _Honoured_. Sh'osha tilted his head and regarded her for a moment.

"Yin'tekai," he said.

Romy just frowned. She had no idea what he had just said.

"Should be... honoured," he said eventually, sounding out the last word slowly.

"Honoured? Honoured that you want me to be a pet? Like your slave, or what? This is so wrong!" she said, speaking more to herself than to him.

But Sh'osha shook his head.

"Not slave."

She stared.

"Then what am I supposed to be? The animal you walk around on a lead? The one that you show off to all of your little friends?" Romy spat.

She was speaking a little too quickly again, but he made out her words well enough. The prospect of a lead had its merits, he would be able to directly control her whereabouts that way. But he planned to have her well-trained enough so that he could do that without need of a lead.

"Yin'tekai," he repeated.

Romy just stared back.

"Mine," was all that he said before leaving Romy alone again.

She looked at the door as he disappeared. _What did he just say?_ she thought, stunned. _Mine?_ Romy couldn't stop the horrible feeling that had washed over her as she heard that one word. A shiver shook her body for a moment and she blinked. _What the fuck...? Maybe I would have been better off dead, _Romy thought blankly.

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><p>Sh'osha left Romy alone for some time. He sensed that she was too riled up to process her thoughts properly at the moment. He knew well that getting lost in the heat of a moment was a common problem that oomans had- he had used it against them many times. And he needed his pet to understand that she was in a good position.<p>

The females of Sh'osha's species were stronger, bigger and oftentimes faster than their male counterparts, while ooman males were often regarded as the more powerful. He hadn't found that with this one. She'd proved herself honourable- far more so than the males she was with. And she'd killed one of her own for his sake; something that was entirely unnecessary, but still proved her to be more worthy.

If she could learn to obey and understand him- his commands, his movements- without question, then her life would be good. That she was picking things up quickly, bathing when he had instructed her to, for instance, was already promising. If she didn't learn though; well, he'd most likely kill her and disregard the idea of keeping a pet. It was only a notion, after all.

And her reaction to the revelation had made him pause too. She should have been proud and honoured at the prospect of being his pet, yet she didn't appear to be. And Sh'osha assumed that it was because she didn't fully understand the situation. She would though. She just needed to calm down a little first.

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><p>Romy spent hours going over what she'd been told. And she'd spent hours trying to find a way out of it. She was so confused, and, unfortunately, all that time had done was convince her that she only had two options. Do as the yautja had said, and become a... pet. Or death.<p>

She didn't like the idea of either option, but she knew how long a time that she'd spent trying to stay alive over the past few days. She couldn't let that all count for nothing, could she? _No_, she decided. _Besides, if I agree to be his pet for now, then maybe I'll be able to find a way to escape later._

Romy knew that it was a long shot, but it was hope. And after her dad and Jake had been killed and she'd ended up on an alien planet with seemingly no possibility of getting home, hope was really all that she had right then. So Romy knew what her decision was after all the time she'd spent questioning herself. She would be a pet, whatever that entailed, whether she liked it or not.

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><p>Sh'osha came back eventually and paused in the doorway just as he had done before.<p>

"Understand now?" he said, staring at her intently.

He was watching her body language carefully for signs that she might try to lie to him. Her body was stiff and her position guarded. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them. Sh'osha would be careful to monitor any change in that as she spoke.

"Yes," she said.

"I understand."

He tilted his head. Apparently she wasn't lying.

"But I don't... I don't know what it is that you want from me," Romy admitted with a frown.

That statement surprised Sh'osha. It sounded to him like the ooman female was more willing than he had suspected she would be from her initial reaction. More submissive. Perhaps all it had taken was the time he'd allowed her to consider things, he thought, but he wasn't foolish enough to simply trust her word. He narrowed his eyes and determined to keep a close eye on her for any sign of a possible deception.

"Must learn," Sh'osha said eventually.

She stared and took a deep breath.

"Um, right..."

She didn't even realise how lucky she was that he hadn't killed her. That he had made her his pet, whether she knew it or not yet, was an incredible stroke of luck for her. Sh'osha had given the subject a logical amount of thought before he made the decision too. That she'd agreed was her mind's last-ditch attempt at keeping her alive.

And, in this case, it was a good decision. Because it gave Sh'osha an opportunity to see that he had been right, and to see that there was hope for his pet yet. It would be interesting to see just how much hope, he thought.

"Come," he said, beckoning for her to get up.

Uncertainly, Romy did as she was told. She followed him out of the room again, not knowing where he was taking her.

* * *

><p>He led Romy to the medical room he had treated her in before. She had never seen it before though, since she had been unconscious the last time that she was there. Once they were both inside, Sh'osha told her to undress. At that though, Romy's nervousness overwhelmed her and she shook her head, frowning. <em>Why the hell does he want me to do that?<em> she thought.

He growled and stepped towards her. She took a step backward, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. Sh'osha could hear the sound and chose not to take another step. He didn't need to frighten her to death. She had to learn to put her absolute trust in him after all.

"Why?" Romy asked.

He paused and watched her.

"Why do I have to do that?"

He tilted his head. That was what her problem was?

"Check you."

"Check me?" she frowned.

"For what?"

"Marks."

"Like injuries, you mean?" Romy frowned, pointing at the wound on her arm.

"Didn't you already do this? Check me and... stitch this up?"

Sh'osha inclined his head. He wasn't quite sure if he was able to explain that he wanted to know exactly what marks were already on her body. And he wanted to know how she had received any of those marks. Sh'osha wanted to learn about his pet's past before he thought about her future. And the possibility of her being useful to him.

So Sh'osha just shook his head and repeated, "Check you."

Romy frowned. She didn't relish the thought of being naked in front of the creature again. But it wasn't like he was human. It wasn't like he was going to be looking at her in any perverted way. Not like Rick had. He hadn't done the last time he'd seen her naked anyway.

Reluctantly, Romy started to peel off her clothes. She left them in a pile on the floor and uncomfortably stepped out of her clothes, leaving her naked before him. It was strange to watch him eyeing her that way. But she got the feeling almost that he wasn't look at her.

He was looking at the bruises and apparently the scars on her body rather than any of her features. Sh'osha's eyes roamed over the ooman female- as did his fingers once he discovered a mark that intrigued him. That had made Romy uncomfortable, and had made her body stiffen considerably. Sh'osha had purred when he noticed the change in her, and whether she liked it or not, she felt herself visibly calm down.

"How are you doing that?" she murmured, not sure if she liked how much calmer she was becoming.

Sh'osha didn't answer. He had been distracted once he'd discovered a scar that was particularly interesting. He found it on her arm and was curious at the long mark in her soft, overly-fragile skin. Romy looked down to where he was focussed. It was the long scar from an accident that she'd had a while ago with kitchen knife. She'd slipped when she was cutting a pepper and Jake had startled her.

But Romy was confused by the alien's attention to her scar and tried to ask him about it. Sh'osha struggled to find away to tell her his reasons and settled on pointing at a number of his own scars in an effort to explain. That only confused her more however, and made her feel even more vulnerable at seeing just how many scars the huge alien had. So Romy tried to explain that she had only gotten her scar by accident.

"H'ko," he growled, but she didn't understand what he had said.

So he went on to say, "Should be proud of scar."

Sh'osha didn't understand how oomans had learnt not to be proud of the scars that marked them as better warriors; the words scribbled across their too-fleshy bodies that showed that they were not as weak as they seemed to be. Romy started to say something but stopped when she realised that it was probably better to let him think that she'd got that scar in a different way.

He, of course, already knew that the scar had been made with a knife and had actually wanted the female to explain why someone had tried to stab her. But that would be a question for another time. And he would find out exactly what she had been doing to result in such a wound- just as he would with the other marks that he'd found across her body.

* * *

><p>*M-di H'dlak - No Fear<p>

**Yin'tekai - Honour

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Um, I'm an awful person. It's been almost eleven months since I've updated this story, even though I've always been meaning to continue it. I've just been extremely busy. : No excuse, I know. Anyway, I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to update, and if you're still reading this then wow, thanks and I owe you big time.**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will let me know what you think! :)**

**Also, for future reference, it may take me a while to update, but I will always come back to the story. I won't abandon it.**

**Kit xx**


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